It was always our desire to finish off the summer with ONE last camping trip. It was previously scheduled for the weekend before school started (our anniversary weekend), but we postponed it at the last minute. As you might know by now, we love camping and the outdoors. If you are wondering and want to know where we get our camping tips from, then visit campingfunzone.com.
Saturday morning, we woke up bright and early and drove 2.5 hours to Wheeler Gorge, a campground right outside of Ojai (a small town 30 min. inland from Santa Barbara, for those who don’t know a lot about CA). The day was pretty sunny and hot, which would have heated up the vehicle if not for the cover that we had bought last week. We got them here at a reasonable price and also found it to be smooth, durable and coated to prevent sunlight to seep in excessively.
Quick travel tip for those with young kids: we try to always leave early in the morning, before they’re accustomed to being up, because they are sleepy and do well in the car. My analogy is this: you harvest honey in the morning, while the bees are still dozing, right? So that you don’t get stung?
Although the Shelbys were also set to join us, their daughter got super sick last minute and they ended up spending the weekend nursing her back to health 🙁 But we did get Ben!
Overall…the campground was a LITTLE too hot for my taste and I ended up spending most of my time on the Camping Chair for Bad Back as I was exhausted from setting up the tent and other things. It was a good thing that we actually got to implement some very vital things that we read on Camping Console. It was over 90 during the day, and only cooled off to around 75 at night. We didn’t even end up sleeping inside of our sleeping bags! Practically, this worked out well since whenever we camp (or whenever else, for that matter!) I co-sleep with Anthony and don’t use covers in order to be safe. So it worked out well for me!
Also, the stream wasn’t deep enough for swimming, just minor wading, which was a bit of a bummer (although I had Anthony strapped to me in the Mei Tai the whole time, so I’m not sure how that would have worked anyways…?). G LOVED the river. As in, “throw me in some cold water, Dad! I’m totally DOWN!!”
One other minor hiccup…Gregory pulled a stubborn streak of steel and decided that he would NOT sleep. Seriously. We thought it might have been because he could hear us talking around the campfire, but when we all transitioned to the tent around midnight, he STILL wouldn’t sleep! What on earth? I’ve never seen him so stubborn. He glared back at Jesse and directly disobeyed him for over an hour, as Jesse tried to be firm without also letting G wake up the entire campground with his high pitched screaming. I fell asleep in the middle of it all…when I woke up around 6, his pack n play was empty, so I started searching the tent for him. I found him curled up into a ball, no blankets, in the corner of the tent. I think somewhere in there Jesse must’ve given up and let G “do his thing” until he dropped…which he *eventually* did!
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nyx says
awwww. I’ve been waiting for a post and pictures! we were so sad to miss it; but, well, what can you do? glad it was fun. we’re thinking maybe El Capitan next summer? Also….is that our bjorn bouncer in the back or did you get one somewhere else?
Kelly says
It’s your bouncer! Ben INSISTED that I was supposed to take it…I wasn’t sure, but I forgot to call you and ask once we had cell reception!
Btw, if you didn’t mean to lend it, can I RENT it from you? Anthony LOVES IT. Even Jesse today was going to drop you a thank you email because Anthony actually lets us put him down for a while now! He has managed to learn how to flip out of his other ones, but for some reason, he not only stays put, but is quiet and calm!
And we missed you, but you guys definitely did the right thing by playing it safe. I would have been mad at you for coming 🙂
nyx says
haha, yeah Justin was going to make sure we forced you guys to borrow it, so please, feel free. not like any little ones are coming any time soon to us. that thing was probably the SOLE factor that we successfully graduated. =)