Leo Carrillo State Park

Here are some very belated pictures of our weekend camping trip at Leo Carrillo State Park.

Nathan is very much into natural sciences these days. He spends hours at the park trying to catch bugs and butterflies and the like. We made a point of buying each child their own butterfly nets. What did they do? Put the nets on their heads and turned the sticks into guns. Here are the two middlers using the sticks as torpedoes to blow up the chairs. Sigh. Who are these kid's parents?

Last year, when we started camping, people would say, "You're going camping with a baby?!?" We would answer back that we hadn't been camping without a baby, so what do we know? Camping with a non-mobile baby was one thing. Now I can look at Brad and say, "We're going camping with a baby?!?" No, it wasn't that bad, but it certainly wasn't as easy as when he just sat in a car sear for most of the vacation. This trip he was either crossing the street in an attempt to get to the neighbor's dog or being strapped into the umbrella stroller in order to keep him away from the stinging nettles. Yes, a wee bit of a challenge.

Simon really likes sitting on Brad's shoulders. This way he's closer to that yummy hat of Daddy's.

The kids began climbing the hill before I realized the other side was a drop off cliff into the ocean.

Check it out! We are figuring this whole camping thing out!

Here Simon crawls around to greet each child in the morning. After the three younger ones are awake it's no longer quiet... ever.

This was our campsite. Isn't it quaint? There were a lot of poison nettles around, but no one got stung thanks to all the long layers we brought along.

We visited the tide pools twice. Two of the kids loved it. Two of the kids hated it. The one you see here was not a big fan. The crabs kind of freaked her out and she didn't like walking on the rocks. Simon was tied to our backs or held the entire time. Nathan was like a spider monkey climbing all over the rocks and putting his face right into the cracks and crevices. He told me, from experience, that crabs don't hurt too much when they pinch.

Aren't they beautiful?

Nathan and Kaeley could have spent an entire day exploring the pools. I love having adventurous kids!

I took a little hike with Simon while Brad and the other kids took a rest.  He stayed very busy and very happy.

We ran into two of our church friends while there, because Kings Harbor Church people are everywhere!
It was a fun trip. We're looking forward to more camping.