Dogwood Camping Highlights of Day One

It had been almost a year since we last went camping, and it was about time, so off we went to Dogwood in the San Bernardino Mountains.

Brad and I went through the normal stages of camping - excitement, preparing, slogging through the ridiculous amount of packing, wondering why we were putting ourselves through so much hassle just to sleep in the woods for a couple of nights, and finally we were on the road... still questioning our sanity.

Fifteen minutes into the road trip and two of the kids had to use the bathroom.

Simon fell asleep on the way up the mountain. Nathan found it the perfect opportunity to stuff the sleeping boy's hands with baby carrots. 

I have developed a keen awareness of heights as an adult, so I bounced back and forth between enjoying the views from the twisty mountain roads to imagining the van flying off the edge.

Thanks to Grandma, the kids had water guns to play with on this very warm day.

Home sweet home.

I think Brad is happy about being done.

This year Kaeley graduated to a big people's chair. The adorable little kid chairs are too squat for her long legs. However, what she really needs is a "tween" chair as the big chairs are still too big for her.

The kids waste valuable time fighting over what color chair belongs to who, so Brad assigned them seats. From that moment on Simon walked around the camp site carrying his chair under his arm.

After "home" was pitched we went on our first hike with all four children walking on their own!

Simon was sure we were lost because he didn't know where he was. We kept assuring him that Brad and Kaeley knew where we were going... that is until we really did get turned around and had to turn around and walk back the way we had come.

Alynna is a monkey and took every opportunity to climb across, over, or under a boulder or fallen tree. She would flap her arms around as she pranced over leaves and insisted she was a bird who lived in the forest and ate acorns. Simon found wands and daggers in various branches. Nathan found machine guns and bayonets.

I was proud of how far we were able to walk before the complaining started. Simon, of course, had the hardest time. Brad picked him up on the walk home as Simon was "all out of exercise". Alynna said she was "goodly tired", but she had to tough it out, because ain't nobody gonna carry that big old six year old around on a hike. Sorry, Sissy.

The threat of forest fires prohibited a camp fire, but somehow we managed.

The bathroom was no where near as close as it looked on the map. We all must have walked an accumulation of a couple of miles just going back and forth. Thankfully we were camping in the woods and had enough room for the boys to "water" some near by trees.

And, of course, no outside time is complete without a collection of rocks, granite, and melted beer bottles. This collection will be complete when, on the last day, Nathan ran after a large lizard and captured its tail, which wiggled for a good five minutes after being abandoned by the reptile.

Ugh.