Boys Camping Trip || 2018

This past weekend, Kevin took Lincoln on their very first boys only camping trip. They headed out to Medical Lake for a one night stay and got to do everything from fishing, boating, swimming, campfire making and s'mores!

Kevin wasn't that impressed with the campsite itself as it was pretty close to the road, but Lincoln had a blast on his first boys only camping trip and I'm sure there were many memories made. This mama can't wait till Finn is big enough to head out on the boys only adventure as well so I get a night all to myself, ha! ;0)

In addition, we're looking forward to many camping trips as a family of four once little Finn is just a bit older. Here are a few photos Kevin sent my way from this past weekend!

Backyard Campout!

This past weekend, Lincoln asked if we could go camping...Kevin responded in the best way possible, by suggesting a backyard campout! We pulled out the tents and camp chairs and I made a run to the grocery store for the essentials...aka s'mores.

We also used our fire pit in the backyard for the first time ever! Kevin was able to clean it out (it was full of so much crap!) and lit a fire, roasted marshmallows and ended the night with the ooey gooey chocolate marshmallow goodness ever.

And as the sun went down, this mama went inside to sleep in the comfort of her own bed while the boys slept outside under the stars!

Memorial Day at the Bowl & Pitcher {Camping}

Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone is easing back into the swing of things after a long restful Memorial Day Weekend. We spent our holiday weekend taking Lincoln on his very first camping trip! Little man was so excited and spent all of Friday at school telling his his teachers, "mommy, daddy, me camping!"

We had very low expectations for this first big trip, and as a result wanted to be fairly close to home in case our first big camping adventure was a complete failure. I'm happy to report that it wasn't a failure at all! We did end up leaving early to head home but I truly think that was more because of the heat and lack of activities more than anything else.

Because we wanted to stay close to home, we booked our reservation at the Bowl & Pitcher in Riverside State Park. We originally booked 2 days and had planned on staying Saturday afternoon through Monday morning. The first 24 hours were awesome. Lincoln had so much fun helping set up camp, explore the area around us, dig in the dirt, and playing in the hammock. I had also brought a long paints, and a couple of different crafts for him to do during the downtime which he got a huge kick out of! I also bought him this book to really get him in the mood and to try and alleviate any potential night time fears about sleeping outside. He LOVED the book and the sounds it made and was so comfortable sleeping in the tent.

We did end up leaving Sunday evening, instead of spending the last night there. This was mostly due to the heat (it was HOT HOT HOT) and by about 5PM, we were all getting a little testy with one another. We had planned on spending a lot of time hiking and exploring to take up most of our day on Sunday, but little man was so enamored with the tent and campsite itself, that he didn't want to do much exploring (which is unusual for  our little dude). As a result we spent a lot of time sitting around the campsite, which limited activities (other than the paints and a few toys we had brought along). Because of this, our usually happy camper (ha!) was not his normal happy self by Sunday evening and asked to "go home."

By that point, I was desperately wanting a shower and was not looking forward to another night of sharing a twin size blow up mattress with my wiggly little due, so we decided to pack up early and head home.

The rest of the weekend was spent spending time playing in the backyard and getting our patio "summer ready!" All in all, it was a really great weekend!

Driving the 101

on our way back from the Redwoods, husband and i decided to drive hwy 101 home. 

it's something we've both wanted to do so we went for it. 

even though we knew it would make for a long trip home. 

it was so worth it. 

the 101 headed north through oregon has some pretty incredible views of the ocean. 

along the way we stopped in Port Orford, OR, the Oregon Dunes, and Newport, OR to eat (and drink) at the Rogue Brewery. 

here are photos from our drive!

4th of July

i hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend!!

husband and i drove down to the Redwoods and camped in Jedidiah Smith State Park for the 4th of july. 

it felt pretty american ;0) 

those trees are so unbelievably big. 

bigger than you can ever imagine. 

and they make you feel so small. 

all weekend long i kept saying "but they're just so big!" and "why can't the camera capture just how big they are?" 

as you might imagine, i took a ton of photos. 

so here are a few from our trip:

the evening of the 4th, we drove into Crescent City, CA where there were tons and tons of people setting off fire crackers on the  beach!

 camp kabobs and husband's shrimp

s'mores! i felt like a kid again ;0)

 and then i made mint juleps and remembered i was an adult ;0)