Camping

With the 4th of July holiday John had a 4 day weekend so we decided to take advantage and go camping with our little family. We've always wanted to be a camping family, but I've always been too scared to go. Mostly the noise factor-others and our own (crying) and the temperature factor-too cold.

The summer after we were married, John and I went backpacking with my sister Amber and some friends up in the Olympic Peninsula. It was a beautiful 16 mile hike along the coast ending at a place called 3rd beach right outside Forks. At the end of the hike as we were getting ready to leave we ran into a family from our ward that had about 4 young kids and we always admired them and hoped one day it would be us camping on the beach.

Thursday morning bright and early the girls jumped out of bed so excited to go hiking, camping AND to the beach. (When they heard we were going to the beach the girls asked if (aunt) Ashley was going-apparently to them she lives at the beach). 3rd Beach is only a mile and a half hike from the car and we figured we could do it. As John researched it further we found that 2nd Beach (original names aye?) was only 3/4 mile hike and might be more reasonable for Tyler and McKenna. So by 9 am Thursday we were on the road and headed for the Olympic National Forest/Port Angeles/La Push.

I have to tell you it was pretty cute-I'm pretty mad I packed my camera because watching Tyler and McKenna pull their lil pink backpacks on wheels up the trail was the cutest thing. John told them they had to carry their own stuff-clothes, flashlight and a book. It didn't last the full 3/4 mile but they were quite the troopers especially for being 2 & 4 yrs old.

John truly was the MAN this trip. He made a couple of trips to get everything we needed to the beach. The girls didn't mind they ran around and in Tyler's case rolled around in the sand so excited to be at the beach. Setting up took a lil longer than planned but after finding a spot to pitch the tent, fighting the wind to get the tent up, and John made us a fire and a gourmet dinner of "Pigs in a blanket" and smores in lieu of a breathtaking sunset. It was almost comical the number of campers/hikers along the beach with camera in hand to take pictures of the setting sun, although can't say that I blame them. We did the same thing:

The kids actually went down for bed easier than I expected and with the waves as a natural noise maker they slept wonderfully. If only we'd had a heater-it was unbelievably cold-I was mostly prepared-I bundled Tate up in a couple of fleece items and then a few blankets...he had John's thermostat because he did wake up at one point a lil too Hot. Oops!

We had only planned on staying one night but things had gone so well and there was so much to do we decided to stay another night. We hiked back out and drove into Forks for a few extra supplies and found that Forks had lost their sites on reality, or else they were really cashing in on Tourism and the Twilight books. There were signs, stores and even a Twilight Tour bus. Really? People it's NOT real! It gave John and I some good laughs.

The rest of the day was spent playing with Dad-building Sandcastles, flying Kites, playing in the FREEZING cold waves and combing the beach for seashells and starfish. That night we made smores and had a yummy MRE dinner of chicken and rice and of course More S'Mores!. It truly was the perfect Day!

We woke the next morning to a cloudy sky and freezing cold temperatures and we knew it was time to go home. So we packed up our belongings and hiked down the beach, over the pile of driftwood trees and up the trail to our car.

We had a blast spending soo much uninterrupted time with Dad-that when we announced it was time to go home the response was unanimous, "I don't want to go Home!" No worries girls, we had so much fun with you too that we'll definitely do it again!