Our Family Stay-cation

We had a great time on our family "stay-cation" last week. Tyler got a few days off at the end of June (because it was the end of his first year of residency), so we took advantage of it and went camping and to the beach. We were contemplating a trip to Disneyland, but realized that 1) we needed more money to do 1/2 of what we wanted to do, 2) gas prices were going through the roof, and 3) we wanted to spend more than just 2 days in So Cal for our big family vacation.

So we took the road less traveled and stayed locally. We were so glad we did!

Day 1: Off to the Redwoods

We got there in the afternoon and set up camp and went off on a hike before dinner. Little did we know how hard a simple 3+ mile hike would be with 3 small kids. The trail was pretty sandy, so we didn't take our stroller. Annie and Cole took turns in the baby carrier with me or in Tyler's arms. Whitney walked the whole way and did awesome. Cole brought along his "laser" to "shoot the bears!", so we felt nice and safe on our walk. My whole body was nice and sore the next day. Either I got a great workout or I'm in really bad shape... probably both? It was so nice to be out in nature and enjoy being away. The redwoods are a great reminder of how small we are; very humbling.

Then we made it back to camp with a hungry family. We had precooked all of the ingredients for the foil dinners at home before we left, so all we had to do was warm them up and add ketchup. It was nice to not eat half-cooked carrots and potatoes.

Then of course, we had to do Smores:

Everyone slept great in the tent that night. It was chilly, but enjoyable in our sleeping bags. Before we left our house that day, I had grabbed some old pillows to bring and Tyler was laughing at me for packing those. So at 1:30am I heard Tyler stirring about. I asked him how he was doing, and he told me that his back was sore. He told me that next time he wanted to bring an air mattress. What?! Mr. "We don't need pillows" wants an air mattress?! I was cracking up.

Day 2: More Redwoods and the Beach

The next morning we enjoyed some pop-tarts around the campfire for breakfast. We quickly packed up our camp and headed off to the main attraction of this local redwood forest: "The Redwood Loop". It's a .8 mile loop around the biggest concentration of redwoods in the park with 15 trail markers. The path was well maintained, and we were able to bring the stroller. As you stop at each of the marks along the trail, you can read a little about what you're looking at. It was a perfect walk, and the trail markers kept everyone entertained. After each one Whitney would ask, "Please Dad, can we run to #___ and beat mom?"

Just some perspective on how HUGE these trees are. There's Whitney by the trail marker on the bottom.

This tree has a hollow trunk on the bottom that is probably 15 feet in diameter. You can go in there and shine your flashlight up to see way far up the trunk. Tyler is in there and Whitney & Cole are following him in. I went in too. It was a little freaky for my claustrophobic self, but still amazing.

On the left is a picture of a cross-section of one of the redwoods from this forest. You know how you can count the rings of a tree to see how old it is? Well, it fell down in the 1930's and if you count the rings back to the center, you see that the center point is 0 A.D. We didn't count them; the park had marked important dates along each ring as you can see in the picture. We thought it was cool that "Birth of Christ" was not only recognized on there, but it was when the tree was "born" too!

On the right is a picture Tyler took. He's got the creative genes in this family, folks. That was one of the smaller redwoods, but still incredible!

After our lovely hike/walk, we went into town and ate lunch at a little pizza shop. Then we drove a few minutes to the beach and enjoyed the late afternoon there.Like a typical Nor Cal beach, it was freezing! I was in my jeans and sweatshirt on the beach watching Tyler & the kids frolic around. Being the mean mommy I am, I didn't let Annie get down in the sand. She hung out with me in the beach chair and stroller. After a few hours at the beach, we drove home to our house where everyone got cleaned up for dinner. I think Annie was the happiest to be home because she was finally able to crawl around freely instead of being in her car seat or stroller.

We had a wonderful time being together with just our little family. It hit me as we were all lying in the tent that this was probably our first "official" family trip together. We went on this trip just for us...not to see other family or because there was a reunion or a wedding or something else already going on. We can't wait to do it again!