The Great Outdoors

Hiya folks! I took the weekend off two weekends ago for a family camping trip with dear friends of ours at Henry Cowell State Park in the Santa Cruz mountains. We figured we'd better go before it gets too cold this year. Gina, Jk, and I showed up last as the last minute to-do's pushed us way back into the evening, but we managed to get the tent up in the dark after some struggles. :-) But there's a very important fact I feel you must know: If we go camping, we go CAMPING. Nathan & Dawn and Sam & Ashleigh had some very cute little tents to keep snuggled in, but a couple of years ago we purchased the Steelman Family Tent, aka "The Ritz in the Woods". Man, did I forget the size of this baby! Our tent sleeps like a zillion people, has a ping pong table, pool, and an espresso machine! Hahaha, okay, so it's just big. I didn't really get a picture of the whole thing, but you can see that Jk found the doggy door, or whatever it was. He loved his own little entrance! Isn't he so freaking cute??We had a blast, despite the campground being under a red flag warning which means NO CAMPFIRE! (Can you believe that? Camping with no fire? augh.) My friends decided to do a very small fire for the girls and smores, because really, what is camping without any smores? Come to find out, if we would have been caught, the fine would have been around $600! (Can you see me smiling right now?)

After packin' up camp, we went down to the Roaring Railroads and snapped a few fun pictures. NOTE: THERE WAS NO IMMINENT DANGER WHEN CHILD WAS ON TRACKS! Just thought I'd let you know, just in case. Haha. Next time we're going on the train ride for sure. They had some type of harvest festival going on, where the kids could make scarecrows, fun silly hats, and what not. We ended this fun excursion with a tailgate party - Yes, we tailgated in the public parking lot with chairs and all, and devoured some mean delicious sandwiches and beverages made from grain, wheat, water etc...
It's a good thing to balance family time for sure, because at the end of the day, what is it that really matters? Who are you going to impress the most? Get out there and go camping. Or something else...and have fun!!