Camping the Wise Way!

Our friends, the Wise's, invited us to go camping with them last weekend. Our whole family hadn't gone camping together this summer, so I was very excited when they tempted Brad with their camper trailer and told us we could sleep in it with them.

This is the Wise way to camp, a way that Brad and I are quickly seeing the benefits of! We used to tent-camp all the time when our kids were smaller, but now that our family has outgrown our tent, and our bodies don't like sleeping on the ground, we're thinking more seriously about investing in a camper. Nothing as big and grand as the Wise's, but something that Brad and I can sleep in, that has a toilet and shower, that can be pulled behind our van.

We headed out Friday afternoon for Grayland Beach State Park. When we arrived, it had just started drizzling, and I was afraid we were going to be in for a soggy weekend. Fortunately the rain let up that evening, and by nightfall the sky was clear. It was a perfect night for star-gazing and after the kids went to bed, Brad and I went down to the beach to look for shooting stars. Very romantic!

Saturday morning after breakfast, we hit the beach, which was only a minute walk from our camp site. The tide was way out and Kylie and Ben immediately set out building a sand-fort. It quickly progressed from this:

to this:adding the final touches...

and all it took was one spectacular wave as the tide was coming in to reduce it to this:

We brought some toys to play with, including Brad's trick kite:

It's too hard to get a picture of the people flying the kite and the actual kite in the same picture, so here's Brad teaching Jillian how to fly it.

The Wises brought two kayaks, so Jimmy and Kylie tried to take them out in the ocean.

They made it out a little way, but the waves kept pushing them back, so they didn't stay out very long.

Matzo enjoyed chasing tennis balls and resting in puddles

We even caught one of Nate's smiles on camera!

And another one! What a miracle!

I love this picture of Jillian. I was playing with my camera as we were sitting around the campfire and got a few good shots.

And I caught this beautiful sunset Saturday night.

I love the colors of the beach.

Saturday evening some other friends, the Closes, came down from the condo they were staying at in Westport, about 5 miles away. I didn't get any pictures of us together, but we enjoyed a delicious salmon and prawn dinner and then visited around the campfire.

Sunday after we packed up camp, we went up to their condo and played in the pool before heading home. I'm so glad we got a chance to have a family vacation before the summer ends, even though it was only a weekend.