summer camping trip #1

please don't take the following as complaining...but rather as a humerous story of a family vacation gone oh-so-wrong!  ENJOY!

well, well!  nothin' like a fresh breath of air in the mountains to start off a camping trip.  we were really looking forward to this trip.  because of the lousy weather this summer, i insisted we go to a camping location with warmer weather, unlike the beaches.  we decided on silverwood lake, about 30 minutes from lake arrowhead.  it was a beautiful location.  we set up camp, after spending a few hours with mark's parents in lake arrowhead 

(thanks for lunch and fun, smith seniors!). 

After arriving back at the campsite we decided to go for a bike ride to lake silverwood.  it looked like a short, fun ride and we figured we could swim a little in the lake and play in the sand with the girls.  a good photo opt for mom.  in reality, it was a steeply downhill and long ride.  at least the weather was nice and we were having fun, laughing as we were thinking about how we would get back to our camp site via this bike path that no real human could ever climb.  once we got to the lake and played a bit we realized we should head home because we needed to take the road home, rather than the bike path, and if we didn't head out quickly we may become the next family on the dreaded show "i survived" (which i can no longer watch because i have nightmares of people breaking in-no joke, i locked my bedroom door one night because i was so frightened-and mark was right beside me-it wasn't as if he was gone)  and as usual, i digress...well, the wind had kicked up (about 30 mph at least) by this time and the ride was so hard.  the first hill was such a killer that i had to get off the bike and walk it, with august on the back.  it was hilarious, though!  we laughed the whole way and i kept putting words in the mouths of the people that casually drove by staring at the poor woman walking up this hill you wouldn't want your worse enemy to walk up-with august on the back...did i mention that already???!!!. we finally made it up the hill and i was bound and determined to make it home ON THE BIKE...and i did-eat your heart out you multi-geared mountain biker people-here comes rebekah, the single speed up and downhill speedster!

so, we got everything ready and started making dinner.  the girls were loving the tent and august even stopped to pose for a picture by it (so cute!)  this was before i put my children in a panic after seeing a spider the size of my fist and nearly screaming bloody murder.  i kid you not!  i thougt it was s scorpion or a tarantula.  did i mention i HATE SPIDERS almost as much as i HATE SNAKES??? oh it gets better though-i realized the girls had not closed the tent all the way and i imagined all the critters that had crawled in our sleeping bags awaiting us that night.

dinner was interesting, as it was pretty dark and lighting up lanterns only attracted the bugs.  so we pretty much ate in near darkness.  it only got better though-i kept hearing something in the bushes next to the table and finally saw a mouse crawl out.  it was cute, since it was from a distance...until i realized we were in the mountains and mice were SNAKE.FOOD. oh, i HATE SNAKES with a passion, even my own kids will tell you that (addison always says, "we don't like snakes, mommy").  but, we prevailed and sat by the firepit...only we had forgotten to get wood, so we just stared up at the stars, drinking coffee under the moonlight, until august fell asleep in my lap (which didn't take long).

we finally decided to go to sleep, about 9:30 or 10.  the neighboring campsite was pretty loud, but with a 10:00 quiet time, we figured they would close down camp and go to bed shortly.  oh how we were wrong.  by 1:30am they WERE STILL GOING STRONG and i was nearly in tears.  i was so tired and could not sleep.  mark finally got my iPod from the car and i was able to fall asleep shortly after (thank you, apple).

the next day was not what we had initially planned, but it was fun nonetheless.  we went to lake silverwood and rented a kayak.  we were able to fit all 4 of us on it and mark paddled us around for about an hour.  

after a short time of playing we went back to the campsite for a much needed nap-oh, did i forget to mention, this was mark's b-day???  so i was hoping for a super special birthday for him.  it was so hot in the tent and the girls were not going to sleep, which meant mommy and daddy were not going to sleep.  let's just say, i am glad CPS was not called.  oh, don't mess with mommy when she is uber tired!!!!    we were so frustrated we finally decided to close up camp and leave-TWO DAYS EARLY!!!

in spite of it all, it was truly a fun family trip...griswald style, of course.  we ended up spending a few days with mark's parents in beaumont, where he was able to enjoy a belated birthday dinner at our favorite place-spaghetti factory-and a golf session with his dad.  now, if we could just perfect the art of camping with TWO TODDLERS!