Portals Camping Trip to Dos Picos

Before we packed up and headed off for our first neighborhood camping trip, I took the kids to Spanish Landing to meet some Wine Night friends and their kids for some fun in the sun.  This is Tatum and Ty playing with Keira, Connor, Parker and Elle.  They're all so cute!

Keira and Ty really get along great.  They're about 6 months apart and seem to communicate well and have a lot in common. It's so cute to see them interact with each other.

And look at sweet Elle! 

Parker was a bit weary of the water and didn't want to get too close.  But Ty was louring him out to play.

And that's all it took.  Parker got out there and started splashing away, his mom Eileen was so surprised!

We all decided that we loved Spanish Landing and definitely plan to come back again soon. :)

But it was time to head home, pack up and enjoy some neighborhood camping!  About 7 neighbor families packed up and met out at Dos Picos, a camp ground just beyond Ramona.  It was a hot weekend but the area they booked for us was nice and shaded so a perfect relief from the heat.  The Budds hung their hammock and the fun began!

Even Dan got a turn!  I missed catching him fall out the back with his beer.  But not a drop was spilled.  True professional. :)  But soon after this, the ranger came and made us take it down since it was tethered to the trees.  It wasn't hurting the tree, party pooper!

Here's Tatum and Ty taking the dogs on a walk with Ashley and Olivia.  It was so nice to be camping with lots of kids of all ages.  Since our kids are young yet, I've never really let them head off without me before.  But with all the older kids around, it was great to send them off and stay at the camp site and chat with the neighbors, knowing the kids were in safe hands.

Each meal was prepared by a different household or group, so Friday night dinner was brats, hot dogs, baked beans, and salad by our house and the Richardsons.  Here's the boys grilling away.

And we pulled all the tables together so we had a large eating area.  It was great!

They have a nice park at Dos Picos so after a delicious breakfast of pancakes, eggs, bacon and fruit prepared by Paige, we walked the kids over to the park before it got too hot.  Here's Tatum and Anderson!

We had to get some sliding in before the slide was too hot to go on.

And look at this climbing monkey!  Anderson made his way to the top!

Ty loved Kelsey and her friend Daniel.  They were so sweet to play with him and include him in their walks.  He still talks about the girl that played with his toy cars. :)

And here's our youngest camper, Rhys, at just over 5 months.  He did great and Tatum loved being around him and "helping" to entertain him.  She loved putting this hat on him, too cute.  He was a great sport as was his mom Susan.

And Kate brought all the kids squirt bottles from Home Depot, great idea!  Of course I think the big boys had more fun squirting people than the kids. :)  But in between some squirt fights, a butterfly landed on Matt's knee.  All fighting stopped for a few seconds. :)

Ty and Colin gave up with the squirt bottles and went for the water guns!

And another great feature of this campsite is that they set up kid activities all throughout the day.  So here are the kids heading over to paint rocks with the camp counselor.  They loved it!  They also saw animal furs and got to pet a snake!

And they also had some water fun.  Here's Kyle, the camp counselor, going over the rules with the kids. 

And here's the large ball the kids knocked around the grassy area while the sprinklers were on, very refreshing on a hot day!

Ty was a little put off by the size of the ball and all the kids so he stayed on my lap and just watched.

But Tatum was right out there, running and holding hands with our neighbor Phoebe.  She's 9 and was so sweet to let Tatum tag along with her.

Our attempt at a family photo.

 

Ty caught this picture of Anderson, cute!

And all the kids made a human pyramid for the cameras!

Funny faces and all!

Saturday night we enjoyed smores after dinner, yum!

And Tatum loved riding her bike around the camp site.  She also enjoyed the showers!  Every night we'd go in to wash off our feet, eww they would get so dirty.  But Saturday night some of the older girls let her shower with them and she loved it!  I wasn't even around and she took her towel and gear and showered herself, I was so impressed!  Her hair was even washed!  It's amazing what kids can do when older kids are around. :)  We all had a wonderful camping experience with our Portal families and can't wait for next year!  Thanks Bells for organizing!