San Gregorio Lake Campout

It has been a long time since we have gone camping with our kids. It was the summer before Marianne was born, to be exact. If you think you're noticing a trend of "before Marianne's" you are probably right. It just goes to show what an impact she has had on our lives. And what a blow she was to our bravado as "super parents who can do everything." Now we're "super parents who know we can't do everything," which in my opinion means we've obtained a higher level...

Anyway. 

We went camping. Nothing to it.

Rus spent weeks fixing up the pop up trailer. It wasn't of the best quality to start, and time and use had taken their toll. But my man can fix anything, as he repeatedly proves, and so this trailer makeover was nothing but 20 hours over several weeks and a bunch of parts and a few swear words and some general neglect of his spouse.

We took it out for an overnight trip to work the bugs out. We headed up to San Gregorio lake, one of Rus' favorite spots, and the kids enjoyed hearing all of the tales from his good ol' boy scout days. We got up there in the afternoon with plenty of time to set everything up, play a challenging round of "ultimate cricket", play some catch, hike to the lake, whip up some fajitas, and indulge in some campfire smoke and smores. The next day we hiked up a two mile trail to a creek and played there for at least an hour before some thunderheads convinced us to hike back out. We got back to the campsite, packed up our things, and headed home.

And now in slightly more detail:

Here was our campsite:

I saw a great pin on pinterest a few days before our trip for bug catcher necklaces using the little containers that come out of toy vending machines. I gathered the supplies for the necklaces and took them on the trip so that the kids could each make their own and then mercilessly torture examine every bug in a 10 foot radius. Here is Marianne making her necklace:

Beau was extremely proud of the ant that he caught:
 I called the game of cricket "challenging" and "ultimate" because it was over rough ground and apparently - to my children at least - a barely entertaining form of torture. Rus even showed them the granny shot version of hitting the balls and still every shot seemed fated to go the wrong way over a bump and ricochet off of every rock in the wrong direction. I thought it was great. But that could be because I won. Perhaps if they had employed the "tongue out" technique Rus displayed here...

 Jacob remembered right before the trip his undying love for playing catch. So he brought a ball and several gloves, and begged to play every spare second. Or not spare second - like the ones where we were setting up the pop up ("can you throw to me?") or making dinner ("hey mom can you play catch now?") or eating dinner ("so you ready now?")...And while the nagging was painful, when we actually did have time to play, we had a terrific time. He'd throw it ten feet the wrong direction and miss four out of five throws and smile and laugh the whole time, happy as...well as a boy playing catch.

 And I just love this picture. Beau the Hiker. Super prepared. Hat, camelpack, bug catching necklace. Such a cool kid.

 Jacob found old man's beard hanging on the trees and had to do his own old man impression. Stoned old man impression.

 The hike into San Gregorio lake was relatively short and painless, and the lake was beautiful. I think Bekah walked straight into the water from the trail, barely slowing to remove her shoes and socks and hike her shorts up as high as possible.

 And this shot was taken just minutes before Bekah climbed up on that stump (to the left of her in the pic) and then fell in the water getting everything soaked and negating the whole "hike up the shorts" thing. The kids loved playing in the water until they found a water snake in it...fascinating...from the shore. Colonel was in heaven - a true water dog.

That night, after the fajitas and catch and smores, we put the kids to bed all nicely lined up in the pop up beds. Except for Jacob, who insisted that he sleep outside. He's his father's son. I thought he would wimp out, but he lasted all night and said that he slept great! Awesome.

Rus and I slept great too. I'm lying. But we made it through, and the morning was bright and cheery and everyone woke up happy. We ate and then loaded up to go find a trail head that would take us to another small creek. Here's a happy Bug, ready for her version of a hike - the kind where you lounge on dad's back and snooze every now and then and demand that your siblings bring you flowers and rocks on a whim.

I love aspens. And I love this shot with the aspen and the moon.

The hike was hard, uphill for most of the way, but the kids did well. When we got to the creek they wearily threw down their camel packs with sighs worthy of pioneers, ravaged the snacks we had packed, and then set out to find extraordinary rocks and bugs. When Marianne (or was it Beau? Jacob?) desperately needed to find a bug, we finally thought to overturn the rocks in the stream bed and unearth dozens of worms just waiting for capture. All of the kids got in on it. So did Rus and I. For at least 30 minutes we all collected worms. It was one of those rhythmic and mindless activities, and it proved to be incredibly relaxing.

Yes, that angelic look of love on Bekah's dirty face is aimed at the mess of worms she is holding in her hand...

Aw. Happy Bug with her prisoner worm. She held on to the poor little guy for much longer than the other kids and I'm sure she shortened his already brief life expectancy...

Aw, I love this dirty brood. It is so fun to go on adventures with them and get wrapped up in their amazement of the beautiful (and slimy) things in nature!

Thank you Rus for teaching our family how to love (and survive in) the great outdoors!