Getting Away {Part 1}

Last week we got to take off and go camp for the week (somehow I never thought that would be something I would be happy about doing!). We spent the week up in Myers Flat in the Giant Redwoods. The week started off a little on the wet side but since we were snuggly in the trailer it really didn't matter, it rained mostly at night and sounded so cool pounding on the canvas, I'm sure it wasn't raining as had as it sounded. Since it was muddy and wet and on the cool side, there was some of this going on


On Wednesday we took off for a drive, it is so beautiful up there. We went to the Famous One Log House and saw tress that were 1800 years old and a log that was hollowed out and made into a house! A little on the tiny side, but considering it was a log . . . kinda cool how they made it work.


It cleared up mid-week and we were finally able to go down to the river . . . I'm sure it was only once or twice that the kids asked to go to the water, but it sure seemed like 100! Somehow they just do not see the beauty in kicking back and relaxing!


I spent much of the week reading my book on Lightroom, and can I tell you how happy I am that I have edited everyone of the photos 300ish that I took that are worth keeping and that I actually deleted many that were not worth keeping! That is huge for me. I also figured out how to make templates in Lightroom, so quick to do and I can blog so many more of them!

Stay tuned for part 2, it's time for me to step away from this computer I've been sitting at for more hours than I care to count!

Camping in Santa Cruz

Got away for a few days up to the Santa Cruz area to get in one last camping trip before the kids go back to school next week! I can't believe that "summer vacation" is over for us. I'm sure we will still get in a few weekend trips here and there while the weather is still nice, but with the kids back in school it's back to the routine of school and homework and . . . aaahhhh . . . I think I'm already missing summer vacation!

Here are a few from this week ~




The water is FREEZING . . . but the kids didn't care . . . the wind was blowing . . . but the kids didn't care . . . it was COLD . . . but the kids didn't care . . . I stayed safely on the sand where it was a little bit warmer, trying to take pictures and keep the sand out of my camera . . .



The campground that we are staying at also has horses, Meghan is in love . . .

Camping

We took off a few weekends ago and headed up to Columbia and camped at Marble Quarry, I'm happy to say that our trip went off without a hitch, or should I say broken cables, if you remember our trip from last year! We had a cool spot tucked away at the back of the campground, the boys hiked around and Meghan rode her bike, and Mimi & Grampie even came to visit for the day. One of these days I'm hoping Mimi will decide to stay overnight with us! She did agree that we had a pretty nice set up and that she could probably actually camp with us.I decided I'd better download the pictures from my camera last night after I realized how long it had been sine I had done that and laughed at these pictures of Meg . . .

She can be quite the little ham!

The boys slept outside both nights in the anti-gravity chairs, looks like they slept pretty good.

Missing a picture of Cole, but he had already gotten up. Meg could not understand why she couldn't sleep outside with the boys ~ so she pretended.

Don't worry, she was safe and sound in the trailer with us ~ I LOVE pictures of sleeping kids.

On Saturday we went into Columbia because we had to have ice cream and take the carriage ride. All of the kids, we had a few extra this trip, Hunter, Cole's friend and James, Cole's cousin.

Yummy!

Made it to the horses

Mimi took the ride with us and Meghan loved knowing about the bandit and the fact that Mimi didn't!


We stopped for some ice cream . . . Meghan shared with Grampie . . . but only on the threat that if she didn't there would be no s'mores for her that night if she didn't! And then we headed back to camp, it was warm and my ankles were killing me by that point!


Great weekend!

Camping

Loving camping in with our new trailer, Daryl loved cooking and washing dishes with the outdoor kitchen.








I'm trying to take it easy today in the Tidwells new anti-gravity chsirs, you see, gravity was not working with me this week, I took a little fall down the stairs Thursday night and ended up on the emergency room. Both my ankles twisted as I went down, the right one much worse than the left, and bringing back memories of the last time I fell and broke my foot. Luckily it's not broken, just badly sprained, but both are very sore, making walking around and getting in and out of the trailer a little difficult.


We are enjoying the beautiful weather and the sound of the kids arguing....can you believe Trevor was actually yelling at Meghan in the middle of the night for breathing to heavy! He is not happy that the fact the the two of them have to share the king size bed! I know, we are such mean parents! I seriously thought that bringing the dog was the major source of the arguing with those two, but since we left Max behind this time I'm realize it's not his fault at all!

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Camping in Columbia - Part 2 - Pinecrest

We got up Sunday, had breakfast, yummy breakfast burritos that Steph made, seems to be our traditional camping breakfast, I love them, don't know why I don't make them at home? Daryl walked with the boys over to Columbia, they really wanted to go

see the town I mean, buy candy at the candy store, so they took a quick trip while I packed up a few things so we could head up to Pinecrest.

Looks just like I remember it from when we used to go when I was a kid. Last time we were there was in 2004, Trevor and Hayden were 7 1/2, Meghan was only 8 months old, Levi was about 17 months old, Cayden was in Gina's belly, and Aida . . . well she was still a few years away from making her appearance! I was looking for a picture to post and Meghan came over and said "who is that sitting next to Aida?" Too funny, it was Meghan sitting next to Levi, my what 5 years will do!

We packed a picnic lunch and ate real quick when we got there, Meghan was very excited to get in the water! She has been a fish since day 1 ~

Have I mentioned how much I love my kids feet?

Meghan and Daryl made a few sandcastles, we were very unprepared with the water and sand toys

So Daryl went to the little store to see what he could find, he came back with an air mattress (hummm . . . to bad we didn't have this the night before for the boys to sleep on!)

so they all took turnes floating around on it.

I think we packed up around 4:30 so we could get back to camp and celebrate Cole's birthday with a yummy dinner and a little more swimming, of which I have no pictures of the swimming, but it looked just the same as the ones from the night before!

Monday we tried to get packed up and out early, I think we made it by 11:30, wanted to get home to see my dad who was in town for a few days.

Camping in Columbia - Part 1

(Warning: Long post and lots of pictures)

We had a great, HOT weekend camping in Columbia at Marbel Quarry with our camping buddies. Things started out great, we stopped and had dinner in Tracy, we arrived at the campsite before dark, the kids were happily hanging out while the dads figured things out.

The new truck did great pulling the trailer

Daryl is deep in thought about the best way to set up camp and getting the perfect positioning of the trailers, we usually try and turn the trailers door to door, but due to the positioning of several large rocks, it wasn't happening this time.

Then it was time for the tents to be popped up ~ and that is where the trouble began!

Something made a really loud, bad sound as Scott was trying to crank up his trailer

It ended up not being repairable on Friday night, they did figure out that one of the cables on the lift pulley system broke, but since it was dark they did not even attempt to try and fix it.

Since trying to get 7 people in our "sleeps 4 comfortably" trailer, the dads built a make shift tent over the top of Scott's truck for Trev & Cole to sleep in, unfortunately it came down before I got to get a picture of it Saturday morning. We thought that they would love sleeping outside, but they said it wasn't very comfortable. Since when did 12 year old boys worry about being comfortable?

So that left 5 of us to sleep in our little trailer, which was cozy for Scott & Steph! But it worked and was better than any other option we could figure out!

After unsuccessfully trying to get someone to look at and hopefully fix the trailer on Saturday morning, Scott and Daryl headed to the hardware store for some supplies, and after a few hours of looking at them like this


we were very happy to see this!


While the boys were trying to fix the trailer, the girls and kids spent most of the morning hanging out in our trailer with the air conditioner on high.

Sunday was Cole's 13th birthday, Trevor talked us into letting Cole open his present on Saturday, so that they "would have something to do"!

and Meghan fixed us some snacks!

whew, if they couldn't get the trailer fixed we were going to pack up and head home. So glad we didn't because we had a great weekend after all of that was taken care of.

Daryl, Scott and the boys headed up to the basketball camp where Kaitlyn was so Meghan, Steph and I headed on the dirt trail to the little city of Columbia, we took Rio with us for protection!

You can only imagine how excited Meghan was to see this on the main street as we were walking into town.

She was sooooo happy when I said we would take a ride


Did I mention that it was probably 105 degrees? I thought for a minute that I was Laura Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie!


and who would have thought that there would have even been a hold-up?


It was pretty funny, the horses stopped and out of nowhere came this "bandit" asking the driver for gold. Meghan looked at me with a very serious look and said "he isn't going to shoot us, is he?" I assured her that he would not shoot us. But the closer that he got to us the farther and farther back she was trying to sink into her seat. Then he asked her if she had any gold or silver, she said she had nothing, just like the other passengers had said. Then he said that her earrings were very pretty, but we told him that since they were pink butterflies we didn't think he would really want them! It was pretty funny.

After all of that excitement, we decided that an ice cream was needed to cool us down a bit. And to make it even cooler, she added ice cubes from Steph's drink to her ice cream cone!


After cooling down a bit we headed back to camp for dinner and a quick swim before dark.

The boys had canon ball contests

Meghan has turned into quite the little fish this summer, and she has no fear at all, at least she wears her life jacket without any hassles at all.