Gualala 2015

A couple months ago, we were chatting with a family in our ward about family traditions and they mentioned that they take a yearly camping trip over Memorial Day weekend. They also said that they book it a year in advance, go with a bunch of other families from our ward, and that they would let us know if a family dropped out and there was room for us. There did end up being another family that couldn't go and so that's how we spent our four day weekend!

By the time we found out we were going, we had 3 weeks to get everything ready. Luckily, we already had a good amount of camping gear and just had to buy a couple small things and borrow two things. Andrew had Friday off and so we drove up in the morning (-ish). It's about a 3-hour drive up Highway 1 and has beautiful views all the way. The only bummer is that the last 1.5 hours are incredibly windy and Adaline threw up. By the time she got sick, we were only 30 minutes away and if we stopped I'd have to feed Matthew too, so we kept going and I just tried to clean her up as best I could-I almost threw up from being turned around in the car and smelling her puke, so that was lovely. We made it though! We got camp set up and Adaline immediately went to the park with one of the other family's daughter. We got our tin foil dinners going and the other families started to trickle in. Putting the kids to bed was tricky because our pack n play was in someone's trailer and they weren't there yet-plus Adaline had no desire to stay in her sleeping bag or go to sleep while it was so light out. Every night was a little difficult for Adaline and she was often awake and hanging out with us around 10 or 11 after getting an hour or two of sleep. Thankfully, Matthew is great at ignoring her and getting his sleep. That night we hung out by the fire and roasted marshmallows till around midnight I think. For my own future reference, the Moons, Smiths, Croskeys, Daynes, Niepraschks, and Nelsons were all there-so fun!

I know it's dark, but this is 1 of 2 pictures I took the first day. It's Adaline and Natalie climbing on the tree stumps. They're redwoods and so some of the tree stumps were well over my head and wider than our tent.

The next morning, we had breakfast at the Daynes' site. After putting Matthew down for a nap and chatting around the fire for a while, I drove with the Moons and Croskeys to a state park so we could walk down to the beach. This campsite was really cool because you're camping in a redwood forest, there's a river running along the edge (though this year it was just a trickle), and the ocean is basically across the street-you kind of get it all. I really enjoyed going over to the beach with them and especially chatting with Liz and Lydia on the walk to and from the beach. I visit teach Liz, so I really want to get to know her and be friends. However, she is deaf and I don't know any ASL (except some of the alphabet that I remembered from elementary school and thank-you). I've been trying to learn and on our walk, Lydia translated and it was great to feel like we were just all talking/swapping stories like any other friends would. In fact, I mentioned that it was hard for me to watch their hands and stay on the path and Liz said that one time on her mission, she was talking and walked right into a wall. Haha! I've done that and I don't even have to look at people that are talking to me.

I think it was later on Saturday that we went and played in the "river" for a little bit-Wolf did some great flips off of a log down where it was deeper. We were on dinner duty with the Niepraschks that night and then did more campfire hanging out.

Dad's hair has been a favorite toy with both of our kdis

Adaline stole Natalie's boots put on even put on the socks. I guess the rocks were hurting her feet so she found a solution. She's pretty sneaky.

She was also stealing everyone's bikes. I think it might be about time for us to get her one.

The unique thing about camping at Gualala with this group is that the Daynes' have been going here forever and many of the other people in the park are related to them or from the ward she grew up in, in other words, there are TONS of mormons camping there over the long weekend every year. One of the great benefits of this is that they have organized church meetings for Sunday. We all walked over and got to have a nice sacrament meeting together that probably had at least as many people as our ward's sacrament meeting each week. It was pretty cool. Sunday dinner was the best meal of the trip for sure! Wolf made chicken thighs, brisket, and ribs and Aaron made his famous chili (which I couldn't actually eat but everyone raved over it). After dinner, we had a little "fireside" sharing spiritual experiences or giving updates about what our families had done over the last year. I missed most of it because I was putting Matthew to bed and Andrew was at the other fire chatting with Wolf and Aaron, but I really liked what I did get to be there for. A few us hung around the fire for a long time that night-I think we were all a little sad that we had to leave the next day.

They loved it

On Monday, we took our time packing up and then headed out when everyone else did, around noon. The kids would've slept the whole way home, but we had to stop at a stoplight with about an hour left and that ALWAYS wakes up Matthew. Then his crying woke up Adaline and there were quite a few tears shed the rest of the way home. We had so much fun though! We didn't really do a lot of activities because Matthew napped in the tent a lot and we had to stay nearby, but we had such a good time getting to know these families better and interacting with them in a different setting than church. I also enjoyed roasting marshmallows after every single meal and trying roasted gummy worms! We're already excited for next year!

I didn't take any pictures of us setting up camp, but I at least got one of us taking it down.