Camping trip

 Every year, starting in 2nd grade, our school goes on class camping trips. This year was Lucy's first year attending with her own class (she's been on a few sibling trips).  I went along for the entire trip. It was bliss.

 We stayed at Sage Hill campground along the Santa Ynez River, a great group spot with big trees and a nice cool river for swimming and boating. The tradition in this class is to make boats during the first 2 days of the trip and then have a regatta on the final day. Lucy's boat was pretty colorful. 

 One of the activities we all did was Andy Goldsworthy inspired art.  We also hiked, painted rocks, made friendship bracelets and cooked. 

Lucy shared our big tent with a classmate and I had our little tent all to myself. Usually, after camping I feel like I need a vacation. This trip left me energized. It was a vacation.

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Mae's class went to Montana de Oro State park, which is 1.5 hours north of here on the coast. They kayaked, hiked, mountain biked and went sand dune surfing. Sadly, I don't have any pictures of her trip because I didn't go.

Father/Daughter Camping Trip

This weekend the dads from the neighborhood took their daughters on the sort of annual Father/Daughter Camping Trip. There are a group of 5 guys that have only girls, 10 of them all together. This year there were a mixture of people but it turned out to be 5 dads and 9 daughters ranging in age from 4-12. Izzy had the camera most of the time and I think I will just let the pictures speak for themselves.

Family camping

Last weekend we took a trip a few hours north to camp at Montana de Oro State park. It was fabulous. Peaceful time away, just what our family needed. Kids played with ropes and sticks. Adults read stories out loud. Lots of backgammon was played. We explored tidepools and bluffs, went kayaking, beach walking, tree climbing and ate excellent camping food. Here is a slide show of the trip (if you click on slide show it opens up a new window and you can view the slide show in full screen mode).

Camping with Henry's Class

Last week I was lucky enough to go camping with Henry's class to Montana de Oro State Park. This place is amazing. Tide pools, sand dunes, bluffs, and creeks, all within walking distance from the campground.

This is the closest beach to the campground. It was sandy (see directly above) and rocky (see first picture) all in one. The kids loved climbing on the rocks.

The dunes were crazy-steep. It was quite a workout going up and down. The ocean is much more dramatic and big compared to Santa Barbara. This part of the California Coast faces west as opposed to our south facing beaches. This makes a huge difference in wind, currents and waves. Dramatic, I tell you.

We kayaked across this harbor to the dunes and then hiked over the dunes to the ocean. I didn't bring my camera because it isn't waterproof, but it was really beautiful. Lots of shells and sand dollars.

Isn't this little sea urchin adorable. It was about the size of my thumbnail. The tide pools were great even though we missed low tide by about an hour. I guess we'll have to go back. Darn.
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Henry is at an age where most of the time he was with his friends, I just helped out with the class in general. We didn't hike, tide pool, climb dunes or kayak together, but on the second night he did join me in my tent. I have to say it was wonderful having him in there with me. And much warmer!

Aaaaahh...camping.

I don't think the pictures or captions can truly capture how wonderful our 3 day trip was, but I'm going to try. I was a little nervous having all 3 kids with me, this was Mae's class trip after all, but it worked out fine. Everyone had fun, no one was bored. The campsite was over the mountains along a river (with water!) only 40 minutes away. Perfect.Henry set up his tent all by himself and lived in it all by himself. Yikes, that boy is getting old.
A view of the camping area with the class. It was hot and dry and windy. I know what you're thinking. Camping? with campfires? while the local wildfire wasn't 100% contained? Well, I was thinking the same thing. Fortunately, it all worked out just fine.

Lu lounging like a lizard (yes, like a lizard blowing bubbles).

Mae rescuing the wooden boat she made.

Enjoying the warm water and probably looking at tadpoles. There were a lot of 'em.

Same thing, different people.

Same thing, two more (little) people.

There was plenty of down time for quietly enjoying the surroundings.

And some very fun up-time (get it?!) Henry climbing.

Mae climbing.

Drawing in a that same tall tree.

One of many lizards (this one an Alligator lizard) found during the trip. We also saw frogs, a rattlesnake, ground squirrels, herons, and hawks.

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All in all it was so incredibly wonderful. Easy and relaxing even. We're very lucky to part of a school that values these experiences.

Father Daughter Camping

A few of the guys from the cul-de-sac decided it would be fun to do a father daughter camping trip. After a few weeks (I mean minutes) of planning and organizing 4 dads and 6 daughters set off for a night under the stars at Kelly Dahl Campground . I sent my old camera with Isabel to document the whole thing. Between her, Josie and Chance there are quite a few neat pictures. There were also quite a few pictures of the inside of the car, a rock, the out house, the fire pit, etc. It sounds like everyone had a great time and are looking forward to doing it again (especially the moms).

view from the car on the way up

the tents

inside the Thomason tent

daisys by Isabel

Josie and Lucy going for a walk

making smores (Lucy, Samantha, Josie, Melba, Isabel)

Isabel by Isabel

playing