A-Camping We Will Go...

High ho the dairy-oh, a-camping we will go.

The girls are both finally at the age where tent camping sounded like it could actually be fun. I did a bit of research and found Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, and it seemed to have all the requirements we had as a family...1. BIG trees - per Aubrey 2. running water and showers- per mommy 3. hiking trails- per daddy. We also had been talking with Uncle Gibby about visiting his house and the aquarium in Monterrey, so considering the campgrounds were less than an hour away, we decided this would be the perfect destination.

Aubrey wanted to do a project one day after we got home, so I printed out some "school journal paper" for her, and she journaled about out trip. I'll let her do most of the blogging for our trip...I'll translate (I made her phonetically spell the pages of her journal and I just helped her with the cover), and I'll add a few details and pictures. :)

I'd like you to notice Juliet on Justin's shoulders. I think I heard "hold you me" a million times while we were on the trip. Poor girl was all stuffed up and had a bit of a cold...not to mention the lack of sleeping schedule. Aubrey didn't like the yellow on yellow paper for her hair, so apparently she went for pink. :) Oh, and notice the tent in front...ours is slightly larger than that, thank goodness!

Page 1: "First we drived to our campsite, and we had fun."

I love the perspective in this picture. Look how far up front we look. :)

 Page 2: "Then we setted our campsite up."

 Things Aubrey pointed out to me in this picture: She gave herself some brown hair at the top of her head because some kids in her class said she had some brown hair up top. She's also carrying the red chair toward the fire pit (on the right side). You can see the grill from the fire pit is folded back. Love this girl's attention to detail...the zipper, the rainbow frame. :)

Here are some real pictures of our campsite action:

Page 3: "Now we went on a hike, and we had lots of fun, and we had a good time."

 She said she made the trees with no tops because we couldn't see the tops! I also love what looks like poison oak next to the trail. She was quite concerned about the poison oak.

Some other pictures of our hike:

Those are certainly some GIANT redwoods! I love the picture of Aubrey looking up. And this is Juliet inside of a burnt out tree. You could fit like 10 of her in there! 

The next picture was the reality of our "hikes"...a kid that needs to hike up her pants, and both girls riding on our shoulders. :) They really did enjoy camping, but I'm not sure they are quite at the hiking phase yet.

Page 4: "Now we went with Gibby (Uncle Jacob) to the aquarium."

 This really was the highlight of both girls' trip! They LOVE their Uncle Jacob (Gibby) and were so excited to see him. I love the tank with sea horses.

Here are some pictures of the aquarium (I am so upset with myself because I didn't get a single picture of the girls with their uncle :((( ):

This is in the little kid area where the kids can go back in a secret tunnel only they can fit in.

 Their very own psychedelic jelly fish made from their images:

  Mermaids lounging:

After the aquarium, we got to visit Jacob's job which is right on Cannery Row! We also went to his little house which is one block from Dennis the Menace park (we went there before the aquarium). From his house, we took a little stroll to the beach...a couple blocks away. I don't think his house could be in a more prime location in Monterrey. To say the girls were exhausted at the end of the day would be an understatement! A good kind of exhausted.

  Page 5: "Now we are going to ride the train."

  I like the little engineer in the very front of the train. :) Also, Aubrey noted that there are other passengers riding the train with us in this picture, just like in real life.

 Roaring Camp was literally a five minute drive from our campsite. After we packed it all up on the last day, we headed over for a little steam engine ride up into the giant redwoods. We were also hoping to pan for gold, but because it was a weekday, that was closed. The weather couldn't have been more perfect! We at lunch on the train and got ice cream at the snack shack afterwards. The perfect ending to a great vacation.

 At the pit stop up in the redwoods:

 The exhaustion finally caught up to her:

I'll leave you with some tree climbing/jumping shots we took while Justin was packing up camp. We were all getting to that whiny/over it point, so we had to get out of the way!

 So thankful to have these girls! Thankful that we are the ones who get raise them and help to make their future memories!