First Family Camping Trip: Day 3

Day three was no different in the morning. The boys got up very early and we headed out of the tent to the bathroom. Breakfast went a little quicker and we headed out to the North Grove trail right away for a nice hike.

If you know our children, you probably know that our boys love maps. Before the hike, we stopped by the visitors center and picked up our maps of the trail so the boys could lead us!

Owen leading the group through the trail. . . 

The boys were happy to be able to walk through the tree!

Owen hugging a tree!

Life with a feeding tube equals lots of time stopping to feed :) We don't mind, and he stays happy!

This was the Abraham Lincoln tree. We read all the stories of the trees and Isaiah said, "I want to name a tree!" He eventually picked a tree and named it toothless (after the dragon movie of course! lol)

Mother of the Forest 

Father of the forest - we were able to walk through the tree

The Stump

After our hike (which took about 2.5hours), we went back to our campsite for lunch and then headed back out to the spot along the stanislaus river we found the first afternoon we spent at the park. 

Isn't it just beautiful?

We ended the day with bike riding, dinner, fire, and roasting some marshmallows. 

First Family Camping Trip: Day 2

Monday was our first full day of camping. The boys got up nice and early, about 6am and immediately had to go to the bathroom. We all got dressed and Heath headed out to take the boys to the bathroom while I began breakfast. The morning was filled with the boys exploring and getting messy. Since the park had quiet hours until 8am, we had to keep the boys quiet. It wasn't too hard because they were so busy exploring the outdoors. I have never let them get so dirty before! 

After breakfast we walked over to a class the park was having for children under 6. They made "forest soup" and talked about all the different animals and things that live in the forest. 

Then they got to make caterpillars!

After the jr. cubs class we had planned to go on a hike through the north grove. However, after the class Isaiah was pretty cranky so we decided to walk back to camp for some lunch. Since it was hot after lunch, we decided to drive to a nearby lake in Arnold called White Pines. Honestly, I wasn't really impressed by the lake but it served its purpose. The boys swam for a few hours and then got to do some fishing with Dad. 

When we got back to camp we took some time to relax as the boys continued to play in the dirt. It is amazing to me what being outside in nature does for these boys. The boys are so much happier outside finding something to explore. After a little while, it began to sprinkle. I was worried. I really did not want to deal with rain on my first ever camping trip! Heath and I decided that we needed to get dinner done just in case we were stuck inside the tent for the rest of the night. It continued to sprinkle all through dinner and became a pretty heavy sprinkle once dinner was done. We set the boys up to eat under the rainfly of the tent while we cleaned up everything that we didn't want getting wet. By the time we were done with dinner and all cleaned up, the sprinkling slowed and we were able to start a fire for marshmallows. The boys wanted to make a fire every minute we were at our campsite so we had to make it happen!

After our campfire we decided to wash the boys off in the shower before putting them in the tent. After all that dirt play, they were such messes! Heath read them a bedtime story in the tent and they soon fell asleep.

The nice thing about bedtime is time by the fire with the husband

Overall, a pretty great day