We're Home!

Let me just say that going on this camping trip was SO good for our family! We were in such need of a good vacation and a little time to just bond with each other without having to deal with the everyday responsibilities! We had planned on leaving Thursday morning, but it took us the entire day to pack all of our stuff up. Since we still hadn't left yet at 4:30pm on Thursday, we decided it would be better to just get up real early on Friday morning and leave then. Our destination was to camp at Doran Beach in Bodega Bay, but when we arrived there on Friday morning, they were all full. The park ranger there told us that all of the state and county parks were full and that we should try camping at Ocean Cove, a private campground about 25 miles north of Bodega Bay. Well, 25 miles on super winding Hwy 1, took us about an hour to get there. That's were we ended up on Friday night. They were pretty full when we got there, with not very good campsites to choose from. We ended up settling there for the night. Here's a picture of us at that campground...

On the way to get some firewood, we could see from HWY 1 a state campground called Fort Ross Reef Campground. We went to check out the sites there and they were MUCH better! Here's Hayden that night at that campground looking for the seals on the shore.

So the next morning, we switched campgrounds to Fort Ross Reef. We couldn't have asked for a better campsite! We were nestled in amongst a gazillion huge shady redwood trees with plenty of space for the kids to explore, ride bikes and play! Here's our campsite...Lil' Miss Jordyn had so much fun peeking out of the tent at me on Sunday morning. She thought it was just hilarious playing peek a boo this way while her brother, sister and daddy were trying to sleep a little longer inside the tent!
The first thing Hayden found when we arrived at our new campground was this tree that grew sideways and hung over our campsite. He called it his "exploring chair" because he could sit so comfortably in it once he climbed up.
Climbing down, giving me a heart attack each time!
More exploring and crossing the bridge from our campsite to the one next to us over an empty ditch.
Someone had even made this rope swing that hung from one of the trees on the hill across from our site. The kids had a blast on this thing, of course giving me a heart attack again that the rope was going to break and they would fly off into the wilderness!
Ellie with her beloved hiking stick...or...um...crutch as she used it!

Oh, the wildlife! I didn't get any photos of it, but there were also cows everywhere! Everytime we went up on Hwy 1, there would be a group of 3-20 cows just walking down the rode sparatically. Talk about strange. At first we thought someone's cows had gotten out of the gate, but no, I guess that's just normal that they rome all over the hwy! Just some camping portraits! I can't help myself! On Sunday we went to visit Ft Ross and the kids learned all about it. They had fun seeing all the old stuff that was preserved and the buildings there. They especially loved the canons and ringing the church bell!
Ellie was SO tired after our visit to Ft Ross, can you tell?! I thought this was cute, because I think that somewhere there is a picture of me at 3 yrs old at Yellowstone just like this! Do you know where that is mom?Admiring the Ocean. Hayden took most of these pictures! He was Mr. photographer all weekend, taking pictures to enter in the upcoming fair.

On the last day, we packed up all of our stuff early and on the way back home stopped at Doran Beach where we were going to camp originally. The beach there is so great and you don't have to walk down a huge mountain to get to it! The best part - THEY HAVE SHOWERS there too, so you can get the kids (and yourself if you've been camping for three days) clean before the ride home. I have about 80 more pictures of the beach still on my camera card that I can't download because my card reader decided not to work anymore. I'm sure you'll have to see more once I get them downloaded, sorry!Jordyn's favorite part of the beach was hanging out in this chair. After going for a swim and playing in the sand for a little while, she stayed in this chair for about an hour just watching the seagulls and trying to communicate with them!