San Elijo!!!

 This year, we decided to take one long camping trip instead of several smaller trips.  Once we arrived to San Elijo, we got our tent all set up, and Keira made sure she had all of the "necessities":

 Then it was off to the beach!  Keira LOVES the water, and couldn't wait to jump right in.  We were a little bummed, the 5 days we were there were the coolest in August, and we were pretty chilly!

 While Keira and Daddy went out to the beach, Tyler was supposed to be "napping"... but he had other ideas.  :)

 We camped for a few days by ourselves, then moved to a bigger campsite and welcomed our friends and family to the campsite.  As always, we had a wonderful time!  We had even more kids and babies this time, which equals more fun for Keira and Tyler.  Our friends Brian and Wendy brought Devlin and Makenna, who are very close in age to Keira and Tyler, so they had instant playmates!

Our first day of camping happened to fall on Dana and Anna's daughter's seventh birthday, so Cortney brought by an AMAZING (as well as delicious- it had cookies between the layers!) cake which lasted all week. 

John and Catherine came up every day after work, and spent all day at the campsite on the weekend.  I was slightly jealous that they got to go home and sleep in their bed every night.  :)

The site was awesome- we had an ocean view, and we could see everyone playing on the beach without leaving the campsite.  One of my favorite things about camping is definitely the cooking- group preparation and tasty food. 

Despite the chilly weather, we spent every day out at the beach, with the braver campers journeying out into the ocean to do some boogie boarding.  Faith fell in LOVE with boogie boarding, and would only begrudgingly come out after her lips were literally blue.

Casey, Faith's brother, spent HOURS digging a massive pit in the sand.It was huge, and provided a lot of fun for all of the kids.

The big kids got in on the fun as well- we had to remind the Daddies that we don't throw sand.  ;)

One of the highlights was our epic lightsaber battle.  Wendy and Brian brought about a dozen lightsabers, and all of the kids (along with some grown up kids) had a really fun lightsaber fight in the dark.  They changed colors, and it was so cool to see.  Some of the next door neighbor campers joined in, and everyone had a great time!

 

I love these pictures.  Little Ms. Dramatic Keira loves to pretend to be a grouch.  It is so much fun to see her grouchy and literally turn her frown upside down.  It starts with grouchy eyes and a scowl...

Then you can joke or tease and she tries to keep her smile in...

and, finally, she can't keep it in anymore and breaks into a grin!  Such a silly girl. 

We also got plenty of crafting in.  I brought some washable tempura paints and some craft kits and the kids painted rocks, wood pieces,  and their crafts.  I was so glad we had them, it provided something to do on chilly afternoons. 

We also had a lot of bike riding.  We were so lucky, our campsite was right at the end of the campgrounds, so there was very little car traffic, and there was a roundabout that the kids used to ride their bikes and scooters around.  Not everyone had one, and the kids were really good about sharing.  They pretended they were racing around the track and had a blast going as fast as they could go. 

The view was absolutely breathtaking.  Not a bad place to spend your days!

The best part about our trip was definitely getting the chance to spend some quality time with our friends and family.  We don't get enough time with them, and we can't wait until next year.

Good bye, San Elijo!  See you next summer!