Monday, June 25, 2012

Camping at big basin

Our girls hanging out at the campsite
Getting ready to start our hike to the waterfall
We had a great time camping are we are tired!!

Last weekend we went to Big Basin with 10 other families and their kids to go camping.  17 kids in all!!  It was a super fun experience but exhausting.  Going with a 19 month old is hard work!  We packed my car to the gills and headed out Friday afternoon.  Once we got there, we started to pitch our tent and let the kids play.  The campsite was great.  It was one big open space, so the older kids had good boundaries and could run around in wild (but dirty) abandon.  Maddie however hasn't figured out boundaries yet so we had to keep a pretty close eye on her.  Dinner the first night was tri tip, corn on the cob and garlic bread.  Delicious!!  I love camping out food.  Dessert was roasted marshmallows and we made smores.  Sabrina's favorite thing to do was "roast" marshmallows.  I say "roast" because she would hold her stick by the fire for approx 1/10th of a second, declare all done and eat her marshmallow.  :)  The kids went to sleep super late Friday night, I don't think Sabrina was asleep until almost 11pm!  Which led us to...

...Saturday.  Our full day at camp.  Sabrina woke up at 5:30am to go to the bathroom and was up, so Maddie was up, so we were up.  Sabrina's friend Mal was up with his daddy Jake so they played together while we waited for other families to wake up so we could get breakfast started.  Breakfast Sat morning was breakfast burritos.  Tortillas, eggs, salsa, cheese, bacon (for those that ate it) plus OJ, coffee, hot cocoa, and fruit.  The kids loved playing at our campsite area.  I really enjoyed having that many kids there because there was always someone for some kid to play with.  Jodi made up these "nature journals" that the kids got to decorate and once everyone was ready we took the kids on a nature hike up to a waterfall.  The hike was 1/2 mile in and back so it was perfect for the kids.  Sabrina walked the whole way and I strapped Maddie in the Ergo.  After we got back from the hike it was time for lunch.  I made the kids and myself PB&J sandwiches with watermelon and carrots on the side.  After lunch was Maddie's naptime.  Naptime was hard for her, it wasn't dark (obviously) like it usually is and it was pretty warm inside the tent.  Anyways we tried but I think she got about 45 minutes total.  After Maddie's nap Michelle Pirooz made up these cool buckets and wrote the kids name on each one.  The kids got to go search for their bucket and it had fake tattoos a necklace and cheezits.  We still had time to kill so the kids got to go on a scavenger hunt.  Remember, Sabrina has had no quiet time and I am pretty sure this and very little sleep contributed to...

...meltdown city!!  Sabrina was losing it and obviously needed to rest.  I made her stay in her tent (the shade was over our tents by now so it was nice and cool again) and told her she couldn't come out until she was calm.  She passed out within 5 minutes.  Right when she fell asleep there was a cool circle time at the ranger station but since Sabrina was asleep and Maddie could care less, we stayed back and helped to clean up the site and prepare dinner.  Apparently half the kids missed the circle time from sheer exhaustion.  We had to drive to the ranger station and a bunch of kids fell asleep on the five minute ride there.  

Dinner Sat night was chili I had made beforehand.  We also chopped up the leftover tri tip and put it in the chili.  Waste not want not!  We also steamed broccoli and cut up watermelon.  For the kids we brought a ton of hotdogs.  We had the brilliant idea of taking the roasting sticks we used for the marshmallows and roasted the hot dogs on the fire!  We woke up Sabrina and she proceeded to cry and tell me she wanted to go back to bed.  I made her eat dinner and then put on her jammies and put her back to bed.  By now Sabrina had decided she didn't want to go back to bed.  Well too bad so sad.  She made a decision and I made her keep to it.  For that she cried "I don't want to go to bed!" for about an hour.  Well finally she was asleep, Maddie was asleep and Jerry and I had some free time, yea!!  The adults hung around the campfire, ate cookies and roasted marshmallows and played a fun game.  We were all pretty exhausted so Jerry and I went back to the tent and passed out.  

The next morning we packed up, had breakfast (bagels and cream cheese, for those that are wondering) and went home. Exhausting but fun!  Can't wait to do it again next year :)

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