Maybe we should just skip the first night...

Last year we started a Mother's Day tradition of going on a family camping trip. We head out on Sunday and spend 2 nights camping, hoping that most other people will be heading home when we arrive. This year we went to Kirk Creek Campground, located between Highway 1 and the ocean, just south of Big Sur. Since we were on 'vacation,' we took the scenic route through Pismo Beach and made a quick stop for a cinnamon roll at Old West. Kyle and I have never been here together before!

Annaliese has been here several times with Grandpa and Grandma Hendricks and loves these cinnamon rolls!

From here we headed to the campgound. We did make one quick stop on the side of the road near Hearst Castle to check out the zebras.

Finally we reached our campground and set up camp. When Kyle and I were planning this trip and pondering just how much stuff we would be bringing along, we realized that we needed a bigger tent. That's right...we needed an 8-person tent in order to comfortably camp with 2 adults, a toddler, and a dog. And we needed a bigger vehicle...so we borrowed a suburban! 

As soon as our camp was set up, we ate lunch and enjoyed a little relaxing...

 Apparently Annaliese thought the bench might taste good..she was wrong

Checking out the firepit

 I bought Annaliese some new sunglasses for this trip. She kept them on for about two seconds. Maybe.

 We set up this 'fence' to keep Annaliese in our campsite...it worked pretty well!

 Going for a walk

 Our best shot at a family picture

The view from our site

We enjoyed a very nice, although very hot, Sunday afternoon/evening and then came bedtime. Annaliese was cold and woke up several times. I was cold. Kyle got up to use the bathroom at least 5 or 6 times and Brodie needed to go outside twice. At some point, I ended up changing Annaliese into something way warmer, changing her diaper (it turns out she was the smelly one, not Brodie) and bringing her into my sleeping bag with me! Needless to say, nobody got much sleep!

Monday started out very chilly and foggy, but eventually cleared up into a gorgeous afternoon. We had ambitious plans of going for a hike, but after hiking about 100 yards and finding 5 ticks on us, we decided that a hike might not be a good idea. We headed up Highway 1 for a few miles and found a nice pull-out to have a picnic lunch. Annaliese slept through most of it!

Our second hiking attempt was cut short by way-too-much poison oak covering our path. We decided it just wasn't worth it!! 

 there was a lack of shade in our campsite

 Annaliese's sleeping arrangement...she was bundled up the second night and slept very soundly all night! In fact, we all slept much  better and woke up rested and ready for the day...at 5:45!!

Gorgeous sunset

On our way home, Kyle and I commented on how different camping is now...the relaxing, sit-back-and-read-a-book-or-take-a-nap camping trips are over for awhile! Annaliese was constantly on the move! But we loved it and are looking forward to our next camping trip in a few weeks!!