Our First Camping Adventure

When we bought our trailer a friend told me that we should make sure to do a one night trip somewhere local because we will forget things and it's a good idea to be close to home.  Obviously she doesn't really know me because I am a huge planner, Type A personality to a tee!  But we still took her advice and booked our spot at Rancho Jurupa Campgrounds which is only about thirty minutes from our home.  Luckily we did not forget anything but we did learn quite a few things that we didn't know before and the one night trip was actually a perfect idea because if we had to stay another night it may have been a bit inconvenient.  I'll get to that at the end but first lets take a look at the amazing time we had!

It was scheduled to rain on Thursday and Friday this past week but all we got was heavy drizzle and then of course on Saturday, which by the way it was not supposed to rain, it poured!  Everybody was till excited to go regardless of the wet weather.

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We got our camp all set up as soon as we arrived and then got inside to stay dry and really hoped it would stop eventually so we could make smores.  All the girls cared about was the smores around the campfire, actually I take that back they wanted smores even if we were stuck inside in the rain it didn't matter if they were done over the stove top or not! 

iphone pic taken by Kayla

While we waited for the storm to pass, Kayla read, Brooklyn enjoyed her bottom bunk, we played card games, played checkers etc.

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Everyone was fine with it, I think we were just so darn excited to be camping it didn't matter!

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Soon enough it was dinnertime and by looking outside it didn't look like using the BBQ would be a good idea so I made the hot dog, bratwurst and beans inside

After 3 hours stuck inside due to the rain it finally stopped.  We had quite the puddle right out our door but I decided we were gonna go out regardless of how much mud and mess we would be bringing back in. 

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I'm glad we did because it was fun and beautiful out.  It actually wasn't that cold either the girls did not need all the gloves and hats on they just really wanted to wear them.  They explored a bit while hubby got the fire all set up and I gathered some drinks and the necessities for our smores

I had forgotten how delicious smores were.

I definitely don't have to worry about forgetting from here on out! 

Kayla cracks herself up and if you could only hear her laugh!!  Nobody stands a chance not laughing along with her.  There were so many moments that night with her tilting her head back like this laughing hysterical at herself.

After a couple of smores the girls wanted to tell stories.  They each said they had a story of their own to tell and they were adorable.  Kayla's was short and sweet and ended with her laughing hysterical at herself while Brooklyn's went on for quite awhile but good gosh is this girl good at story telling.  Her facial expressions were perfection and so adorable.  The girls were exhausted a little after 9 and both decided they wanted to go to bed.  I tucked them in and then headed back out to hang out with hubby.

Sunday morning I got up and got dressed to take Cali out to use the restroom.  It was around 7am and gorgeous outside.  I didn't have my camera and wasn't about to go and get it because it was too pretty to leave.  There was a thick fog over the trees below and the sun beautifully lit up the field.  Nobody was out just Cali and I, it was so quiet and peaceful and I'm glad I have that picture in my head forever to keep just to myself.

Mornings are my favorite time when camping.  It's usually quite and there is a stillness all around no matter how many people are nearby.

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After breakfast the girls and hubby took off to explore while I stayed back to enjoy my coffee and I enjoyed a pretty bird hanging out along with me.

  Later when hubby got back he found a crazy looking spider crawling on his coffee and the night before we saw a huge owl fly right over us while we were sitting at the campfire.   One thing I could have gone without seeing were the many skunks wandering around as soon as the sun began to set.  They would come out from the trees across the field and make their way under the white fence to try and get into the campsites.  We quickly learned that if you shined your flashlight on them they would scurry back across the field.  But we did have to spend the night watching out for them.  There were two times that one got a little too close for me and I was ready to grab my dog and get back into the trailer, the hubby and girls were on their own.

Brooklyn and daddy playing tic tac toe in the dirt together

A little game of paddle board baseball

Cali did so good camping!  She was extremely good and behaved the entire time.  She ended up getting bit by a red ant or two early in the morning and was in a bit of pain for a little while but eventually was okay but she was exhausted after that whole situation so she spent the rest of Sunday snoozing.

Brooklyn found a rollie pollie friend that she carried with her for quite some time.

We spent a lot of time telling Brooklyn to get out of the dirt.  We would get her cleaned up to eat and then she would stick her hands back in the dirt/mud, wipe them all over her pants it never ended.  We gave up all together eventually but it was strange how much she loved playing in the dirt because she was that baby/toddler that hated to have dirt on her hands she wouldn't even play in the sandbox in the yard without freaking out!  Things definitely have changed because she was much less girly out camping.

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When it got time to start packing up the girls decided to plant their sticks and trees they had made in the ground. 

To say we had a great time would be an understatement!  We all loved our first family camping trip, rain and all.  Like I said earlier we learned a few things, the biggest one was that just because we have our own restroom doesn't mean we should be using it all day!  This probably would not have been a problem if it wasn't raining because we would have most likely been out and about hiking and using the public restroom but that was not the case.  We did not have sewer hook ups at this location so we found out around midnight that our black water was full and we did not have our own restroom for the rest of the trip.  Poor hubby stuck with 3 girls that have tiny bladders, especially mommy when she drinks beer!  Anywho all was good and we made do, the public restroom was actually very clean so it wasn't all bad.  A few of our upcoming camping trips are what you call dry camping which means no hook ups whatsoever.  We have a generator for electricity but we will definitely be using public restrooms most of the time keeping the trailer restroom available only for nighttime and cooking as much as possible on the fire or grill. It was a fun experience though and we are all really looking forward to our next camping trip at the beach in May. 

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