Kalaloch . Day 1

It's always tradition for our family to go camping in a new place every summer. Since our summer would be cut short in Washington this year we really had to get a move on our camping trip. We had heard from a good friend that Kalaloch was a great place to camp. Nestled right next to the beach on the coast but still surrounded by so much greenery I quickly understood why it was so coveted. We had tried two weeks earlier to go camping but the horrible rain prevented us from going. We got really lucky this weekend with nothing but SUN and WARM weather all weekend. That is pretty unheard of for the coast anytime of the year. We found the most perfect spot for our family to camp. It was nestled in the trees with fallen trees on both sides which created a great play area for the kids to explore. We were only a 2 minute walk to the path that lead down to the beach. It was the best of both worlds. As I told Mike later, the beach and camping don't mix well for me. However, sitting on the beach all day in the sun was a welcome reward after having endured a horrible winter and spring of non-stop rain and cold.

We spent almost the entire day playing at the beach. We set up our chairs and let the kids go wild. Poor Abby was still in her cast but she still managed to have fun diggin in the sand and pretending to draw on the logs. She was severly covered in sand from head to toe by the time the day was over. Mike took her over to the water a few times and dipped her hands in the water so she wouldn't too badly about not being able to really get in the water. Andrew, Peter, and Emma all got in the water. It's too bad I wasn't more prepared because I forgot Emma's swimsuit and didn't bring any towels. I guess that is what happens when you plan mainly for camping and not playing at the beach. Emma got all wet but that was quickly remedied and soon enough she was dry again from the warm sun. For the remainder of the day I kept noticing how Emma's pants kept riding low and I could totally see her bum. I reminded her to pull them up but I don't think she cared too much about it. It was kind of hilarous so I snapped a picture of it.

The coolest thing the kids found was this awesome circle drawing in the sand that looked somewhat like a maze. They had so much fun running in and out of the lines and having races with each other. Even Abby tried running which looked hilarous with her cast on. After quite a bit of sun we decided to head back to camp to get cleaned off and eat dinner. I quickly realized that we did in fact get a little burned. It was totally my fault for waiting too long to put on our sunscreen. Dinner and roasting marshmallows around the fire was so much fun. Mike even gave Andrew a lesson on how to use the axe and he was actually able to chop a big log in half. After dinner the girls were tired so I put them to bed. I ended up falling asleep on my sleeping bag but woke up just in time to see the sunset. Andrew and I headed down to the beach to snap a couple of shots. Andrew had fun drawing in the sand while I sat and tried to capture the beautiful sunset. It was super windy which made it really cold. I could only take 5 minutes of my hands being cold before I called it quits and we headed back to camp to get warm by the fire. I realized this camping trip that having older children is so much easier when it comes to camping. The older kids practically put themselves to bed when they were tired. Abby was the only hard one. It made me excited for future camping trips when Abby is a little older.