San Clemente camping trip.......

Family Picture at the beach


All the cousins, and they're actually all smiling

Family picture

Okay, where do I start. First I would like to say that I had to wear my glasses full time for the first 2 days. I woke up the morning of our trip with a painful and swollen eye. I went to the eye doctor and he said I had an eye infection and had to put antibiotic drops in for a few days. I'm not going for a new look or anything, I just had to wear them for most of the trip.

We went on a family camping trip to San Clemente from Wednesday to, what was supposed to be, Saturday. We packed for the trip which is always a nightmare because when you go camping you have to pack EVERYTHING! We packed (and I do mean packed) ourselves in the truck and headed off for what I was hoping would be a low stress camping trip. We got there, the men got the tents up, and we got settled in. The first day (Wednesday) was great. The kids got down and dirty the second we arrived and we couldn't keep them clean at all for the entire trip. They played in the dirt, rode their tricycles, searched around the campsite for rocks and treasures, and had a really great time. Matt and Bryan who I would consider to both be a "guys, guy" decided they were going to start the fire using flint and the brush/pine needles that nature provided them with. They often compare themselves with Bear Grylls. For those of you that don't know Bear, he is on a TV show called Man vs. Wild. Anyways, to make a long story short, Matt and Bryan failed miserably at making the fire. So my sister and I decided to show them how it's done. It took us about 2-3 minutes and wah-lah, we had fire. Call it beginners luck or maybe we're just naturals. It was actually pretty funny to watch their faces when the fire started. Priceless. On a side note, they "claimed" that they ate termites. I'm not so sure I believe them since nobody actually saw it. And anyways, WHY would you want to eat a termite??? Gross.

That evening my mom made a super yummy dinner. After dinner most of us walked down the hill to the beach. It was a gorgeous evening and the sunset was beautiful. Everything sounds good so far, right!?! Yes. Then came bed time. That's when things became a little out of control. Let's just say Jack slept from 2:30am-5:30am. It was MISERABLE. And I'm pretty sure that I made the rest of my family miserable too. So what we decided to do was spend the whole day at the beach and campsite, go home and sleep, and then come back the next morning and stay all day. It actually worked out so much better that day. Both of our kids got a really good night sleep on Thursday and them we headed back to San Clemente early the next morning and had a GREAT day.

On day 2, which was Thursday, my dad made an excellent breakfast. After breakfast, we went and spent most of the day at the beach. Emily loved playing in the sand but wanted nothing to do with the water. She sat there for hours and was so content on playing in the sand. Jack loved the sand and the water. He just played and played and played despite being super tired and kind of grumpy. When we got home from the beach we got the kids down for a nap and then took showers. The kids played around the campsite with some of the other kids and had a ball. For dinner we roasted hot dogs. Hot Dogs always taste so good over the fire. Then the guys went down to the beach for a little fishing. We made smores. Then off to our house we went for the night.

On day 3, we got back up to camp around 9am and the guys went fishing again and then off to the beach again for some more fun in the sun. That evening we had a yummy spaghetti dinner and more smores. Also on a side note, Matt and Bryan finally successfully made fire this last day with the flint. The only problem is that they had to use loads and loads of toilet paper to do it. :-) I love giving them a hard time. Matt also packed up our campsite to leave that evening because we just decided to make that the last day. It was so fun. We made a lot of really good family memories and had a lot of laughs. It's always fun to look back on these types of vacations and remember all of the funny memories and good times we shared through out the week. The cousins have a blast together and us adults really enjoy hanging out too. Overall a great trip (minus the sleeping).

Sorry I may have gone a little picture crazy!

DAY 1















Getting ready to depart for San Clemente

Emily at the beach the first evening















Jack playing in the sand

Matt and Bryan attempting to make fire

Attempt failed- Matt with matches, Bryan with lighter

Let us show you how it's done boys















The men eating sushi

DAY 2


With our little guy

Jack and Emily playing in the sand















Bathing beauty's (my mom and sister)

Making hot dogs with Emily















The rest of the gang roasting hot dogs

Papa and Jack having a good laugh

DAY 3

Jack as happy as can be in the sand



Grandma giving the girls manicures

Grandma taking the kids on a walk after dinner

Papa, Emily, and Amanda hanging out by the camp fire

They finally did it

While trying to move the fire to the pit, they almost started a wild fire