Camping

This past weekend the girls and I went on our first ever over-nighter. I've really been looking forward to taking Sydney and Bella camping for a long time now (don't worry Preston, your turn will come soon my man). So, after a busy work week and a few trips to REI and Walmart, we packed up the car on Friday afternoon and headed out for our overnight adventure.

We camped at San Elijo State Beach which is only a few miles up the road and is right on the bluffs overlooking the surf at Cardiff. The campsites are pretty basic and we had lots of neighbors (and their dogs) but we had all we needed to experience the great outdoors.



Bella helped me set up the tent while Sydney scouted out the campsite and watched the surfers right below us. We set up camp, built a fire, cooked dinner on the camping stove and then cooked marshmallows and made smores. The girls were pretty tired by then so we checked out the stars for a few and then snuggled up in the tent to read a few books with our headlamps on. We all sacked out pretty quickly as the sound of the surf lulled us to sleep (I gotta live closer to the beach someday...). All in all, the girls were total champs.



Highlights:

Smores - cooking, eating and and wearing them (Bella got a lot of mileage out of a single smore - it ended up on her face, pants, hair, chair, the tent and even Dad's shoes).
Flashlights and headlamps - very cool according to the girls.
Doughnut Holes - "Dad, can we have just one (i.e. five) doughnut hole"? Right behind the smores, the doughnut holes were a big hit. Something Sydney actually likes more than bread and butter!
Cooking on the new camping stove - took pictures to have evidence that I actually do cook once in awhile (ok, so only when camping...)
Camp Store - Bella got a toy cell phone which she claims was the highlight of the trip.