Last summer, Bill took Dylan, Gracie and Luke camping at Big Bear with Uncle Bob for two days and they all had a great time. Ever since then, Luke has been asking when we could go again. I used my Costco rebate check to get a 10 man tent. Thanks to Mom's help, we were able to get air mattresses and a camping stove/oven. We felt like we had enough gear to stay for two nights this time. Luke was getting nervous about CA state testing, so to get his mind off of that, I told him we would leave to go camping in Yucaipa as soon as he was done with testing. That's what we did!
When we got to the Yucaipa campground it was almost dark, so I don't have any pictures of that first night. I was a little worried when Bill and Dylan were trying to put up a brand new tent in darkness, and then I broke one of the lanterns. I almost thought we would end up going back home. But, the tent was set up fairly easy, I had two other lanterns, and next thing you know we were cooking hot dogs. The next morning was even better with Bill frying eggs and making pancakes while I tried to find a place to make coffee. I ended up plugging my coffee pot into the outlet in the bathroom. Sounds crazy but it smelled and tasted great. Next time, I'm going to try a percolator on the fire.
We planned the whole trip at the last minute, so one of the only locations that had openings was at Yucaipa Regional Park. Bill couldn't help but laugh when we got there the first night, because we could see soccer practice going on down the hill and the next morning we saw someone walk by with a Starbucks cup. Not too far from civilization.
The kids love to go fishing even though they have never caught a fish! We really thought this would finally be the right time. Our family just makes so much noise that I don't know if we will ever catch one.
Luke especially loves to fish. He is the outdoorsman of the family. He loves dirt, bugs and now dogs.
Daddy spent most of the day fixing the poles that broke, replacing bait, etc., etc. He didn't complain once!
Caleb didn't do much fishing but had a great time running around and throwing things into the water. Probably another reason why we didn't catch any fish.
Here Caleb is taking leaves and sticks and making his own soup. His imagination usually has him going places far away from where we are at.
Luke couldn't resist pulling up his shorts as high as he could and wading around.
Caleb pretending to be a super hero of some kind. Every once in a while, the wind would pick up and make his towel fly up in the air like he was flying.
Dylan snuck a picture on my camera.
Showing off our brand new tent. It had enough room for all of us and our duffel bags. It was tall enough for Bill and me to stand up inside.
Playing dominoes is a Blades family tradition. It gets competitive, especially when you don't call out your points quick enough. Bill loves to tease them before they make a move, telling them that they are going to set him up for a lot of points. "Make the right move, and it's party time..."is one of his favorite phrases, as well as calling out "muggins" to steal your points if you don't call it out right away.
How is it that Dylan or Bill always win?!
Bill really got into the spirit of telling ghost stories on the second night of camping.
I loved hearing Caleb's story. It was a sweet combination of something from every other person's story.
That night everyone was so tired, they were asking to go to bed at 9:30. Jack was completely worn out and almost collapsed into his crate. I felt like it was a very successful first attempt at camping for me. I had such a good time, that I came home a planned a two day trip at the end of May and a three day trip at the end of July. We laughed and talked together more than we had in such a long time. No tv, no cell phone, no ipad, no ipod, and we didn't miss them at all. Well, I didn't at least!
No comments:
Post a Comment