camping- part I

For 5 days in the beginning of August we went camping with the church's marriage matters class. It was our first time camping as a family, and we had the BEST time! We cannot wait to go camping again. I wasn't sure how it would be w/ 2 young kids & camping for so long but when it was time to leave we were wishing we could stay longer!

We camped at Lake Lopez, which is just outside Arroyo Grande, CA. It was a beautiful, quiet, peaceful, & fun campgrounds that we thoroughly enjoyed. We got there on a Wednesday afternoon and set up camp. We shared a site with our good friends, Jer & Amanda (both of our families were in tents), and then our other friends Devin & Lori (they had a trailer). Our group had 5 sites total and 2-3 families on each site!

It was almost instantaneous that the boys got out of the car and into the dirt. I loved it! They were SO happy just playing & getting dirty (you know, being boys)! We all had dinner together (teriyaki chicken sandwiches), then spent time around the campfire. The families were individually on their own for breakfast & lunch (but we all ate together), and then a couple families were in charge of dinner for everyone each night. It was a great way to run things.


The second day we woke up, had breakfast, did a group morning devotional, and then had some free time. Someone brought the game of "Mexican Horseshoes" (I have no idea why it's called that, I just called it the washer game. ha!) so Dathan, Jer, Amanda, & I all played. The first game was couple against couple & we lost. Then the boys had a *brilliant* idea to do guys against girls. Well, to their dismay, we beat them 2 times in a row! Yay!


Then the whole group headed over to the campground's water park. It was overpriced & freezing, but we still had a BLAST (which made it worth the money, right?). All 4 of us just love swimming & playing in the water, so we were so happy. There was a kiddie area with mini slides for the boys to go down. They loved it. We took Sean down one of the big slides with us 4 times and then the workers said he was too short to ride. Whoops.


We went back to our campsites, showered, then ate an amazing dinner of carne asada (oh how I have missed that while being in Alabama)! Then we headed into town to eat at Doc's Ice Cream. They had a cute train that went around the top of the whole store, which the kids loved!


When we left Doc's we all stopped at a local playground to let the kid's burn off all that sugar they just consumed from the ice cream. Then we headed back to the campground and enjoyed time around the campfire, then bed!

To be continued......