Camping

A very beloved tradition is our annual camping trip. It all started with an invite in 1993 from our dear friends Dave and Lynnette to share their camping site. We missed a few years here and there and we used to camp with a very large group (15 families approx.).

We've had organized activities (3 years of a survivor competition- I won the third and final, the last challenge between the three finalists was to submerge our heads in deep pans of tomato sauce and retrieve as many ping pong balls with our mouths as we could. Our eyes burned, but I refused to lose).

We had a chef come one year. Every family had to help prepare one meal and by the end of the trip he was renamed the "anal retentive chef" for his insistance on my bell peppers to be cut identically and others had the same experience, he lasted one year.

Most of the years we have been at McGrath State Beach in Ventura, but we stayed one year in San Diego, which nobody loved and we have had a few very lucky years getting the group camp site at Refugio State Beach in Santa Barbara, which has a cliff front ocean view. We took my parents motor home for a few years, but the kids love the tent experience and it was a big effort to ready and get the motorhome to the camp.

Over the years it was determined the group was too large so we splintered into our own fabulous camping group. It is smaller, therefore more intimate and meaningful. We each take turns making a dinner and we don't cook run of the mill camp food.

We have traditions now: Laura's Mountain Man breakfast, Lynnette's turkey sandwiches with cream cheese and basil on raisin bread and her spinach dip, Gayle's herb butter. Dinner is always something gourmet. We do a dinner one night at Duke's, a local burger joint.

The camp fire is a highlight of the day. Dave can get us laughing like nobody can. Last year the park ranger came over at 10:30, he thought we were drunk, because we were so loud. he was surprised to find a very normal looking group having so much fun and me with a sleeping child on my lap. This year we made Dutch oven Monkey Bread and smores at camp fire time.

We spend a lot of time at this table playing cards, doing crafts, and of course eating.

Madeline, Darian, and Tess.

All of our camping trips are at the beach. I got the worse burn in my life on the back of my legs this day. We stayed in this position about 4 hours because the wind made it too cold to sit up. The day after this we all were waddling and wincing in pain. I wasn't pink, I was purple and it took 4-5 days until I stopped noticing I was in pain. I am the sunscreen queen so I was very upset I didn't reapply my sunscreen while we were out.

Chase is the artist in residence when we camp. His family started camping with us a few years ago and he began a tradition of painting handbags on stones from the beach. I've watched others get their bags in years past. This year I was honored to be asked to choose a handbag for him to paint for me. He also painted one for Madeline and Grace. He will be a famous designer one day, he is very talented and very nice.

Some of the bags he painted this year.