Camping at the Beach

August 22nd we headed to the Washington coast to spend the weekend camping with friends from Auburn at Twin Harbors State Park.

We got there late afternoon on Friday and quickly set up camp.  We finally bought a new tent this year after ‘borrowing’ Justin’s Mom’s tent for the last umm, 9-10 years.  We’d long since outgrown it so Justin bought a tent at Costco this summer.  This was our first time putting it to use.  It’s a “10-man” tent, but with seven people and all our gear it was still quite cozy.  My favorite feature of the tent is the swinging “D” door – no zipping and unzipping every time you need to get in or out of the tent – brilliant idea!  Another great feature is the additional side door. Technically it leads to the ‘screened room’ but it was super handy since the big kids slept on that side of the tent and they could get in and out without disturbing Drew who was sleeping on the other side.

When camping there must be some whittling going on, right?

The Thomas’ came up on Saturday to spend the day with us.  First item of business was to check out the beach.  It was a little bit of a walk to get there.

I think I see it!  

This is Abigail thinking she was pulling aside to get out of the picture.

Check out those clear blue skies!

Katie went right to work collecting shells

Susi was so sweet to help Katie find shells and then carry all her treasures back to camp

Justin and Drew had a sweet moment

Then Justin and DJ had a moment 

The moment our feet hit the sand Jason wished for his Crocs instead of tennis shoes and when we didn’t agree to walk all the way back to camp for him to change his shoes he decided he wasn’t going to budge.  So we left him at the top of the hill.  He stayed there waiting for a good 20 minutes before he decided it looked more fun down on the beach than standing alone.

After having lunch back at camp everyone went back to the beach to play while I stayed to let Drew nap.  Apparently the sun came out at the beach that afternoon but I didn’t witness it ;)

The last time we camped with Auburn friends, Chad Carman did all the cooking – sure we helped a bit and reimbursed him for the supplies, but he prepared gourmet meals all weekend.  It was amazing!  There were too many families this year to do the same and I’m sure it was a tad bit too much for one guy take on anyhow.  So we were on our own this time and I must admit we did quite well.  We experimented quite a bit with our dutch oven and ate some great food – cobblers, breakfast potatoes, BBQ chicken sandwiches, dutch oven southwest chicken – Yum!  Everything always tastes better camping.

Can’t forget smores!

Carly was really into taking care of the fire this year.  She had a great fire stick she used all weekend to move wood and keep the fire burning.  Abigail continues to be quite the opposite around flames.

Just crackers for this boy!  Keeping him clean was hard enough.  So. Much. Dirt.

Drew was fantastic all weekend.  He napped.  He slept well in the tent at night.  I was so worried going into the weekend.  I think camping with a one year old is the hardest age because they are so unpredictable.  There’s no using logic or bribery at 2am with a one-year-old.  It could have been miserable, but he did so good.  Such a great little guy! 

A highlight for the kids was playing with the Carman’s giant rubberband.

Our campsite wasn’t really close to any of our friends which meant that one of us had to be at camp if we had kiddos sleeping in the tent (the folks that camp these days are a bit sketchy).  As a result, besides the Thomas’ I didn’t feel like I hung out much with any other families all weekend.  We still had a great time, but it wasn’t quite what I expected.

Sunday morning Justin and the kids went to church (again, while Drew napped).  When they got back we ate, packed up, and headed home.  We had reserved our campsite through Monday, but we had another campout planned for the following weekend so we decided we head back home on Sunday to get ready for the next adventure. 

On the way out of town we drove by Washington’s tallest lighthouse.  The kids had already started a movie so it was just Justin and me that gave it a moments notice.