Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Camping "Fun"

Justin's friend Evan had his 29th birthday last weekend. For the last few years he has gone camping for his birthday and this year was no different. They were going up to Foresthill (Near Auburn) to go camping at a place where you can go dirt bike riding. Of course Justin heard that and had to go. Since it is only about a 2 1/2 hour drive we decided to go up for just the day on Saturday. However, on Friday we thought it would be "fun" to spend the night.

For those of you who know me you might know that I am not a big camper. It is not the camping so much that bothers me. But I hate all of the work that goes into camping and I hate sleeping on the ground. I was worried about Paige sleeping since she has always had a hard time sleeping. And I had read some horrible reviews about the camp management. But we went anyways. I was trying hard to serve my husband in this way.

We left a little after 7AM, got some McDonald's and headed up there. We had our GPS and some directions from Evan's Sister. We were making good time when the GPS told us to turn on a dirt road. This dirt road reminded me of one of those back woods horror films, or at least a dirt biking trail. It did not feel right, but we had the GPS so we followed it. It took us to a clearing where the road split into a few directions. The direction the GPS was telling us to go was a closed road. We decided to turn around and follow the other directions we had. We were back on pavement and came to the gravel road the directions said and so we went on it. That road turned into a dirt road with some crazy jumps in it. Thank God we were in the big truck. Ironically that took us right back to that closed road again. So we tried one more time. Kept going straight instead of turning on the gravel road and less than a mile later we finally found the campsite.

The managers would not allow us to share their campsite as there were too many people, so we had to get our own. Luckily it was not too far from them. We set-up our tent and pack-n-play. Then Paige and I hung out with Danielle and Maelee (Their 10 month old daughter) while Justin went and rode with Evan. The day was not too bad. It was a little chilly with sporadic moments of heat. We had lunch, we went on a small hike and just hung out. It was exhausting chasing after Paige in a strange place. We were able to borrow Evan and Danielle's B.O.B (Which is amazing) to get Paige to take a late nap.

We cooked dinner and hung out with the many people that were there with Evan. Around 8:30 Justin tried to walk Paige again, but that did not work. A little later, I took her to the tent, and she just played. Justin was going to take her for another walk, but by this time it was after 10PM and dark. He was not sure what kind of wildlife he would run into, so he went to the car and put on a video. I joined him and we watched Boz two times. I bounced Paige and she would almost fall asleep. Then she would sit up- major fighting. We finally put her in her car seat and strapped her in. She cried for a while. Justin had me go to sleep in the tent.

So I slept alone in the tent, on the ground. I had several blankets underneath me but they were not much padding. Justin slept in the car, with a towel for his blanket and Paige. She continued to cry periodically for the entire night. Needless to say we probably won't be camping as a family for a little while. And we are seriously considering buying a trailer of some sorts once we have some money to do so. But overall, the place was beautiful and Justin had a great time riding. I was able to get a few pictures at the beginning so here are a few of them.
Paige and daddy hanging out between rides.
Paige sitting on the wood block.


Evan & Danielle's campsite. We sepnt most of our time there.

Daneille, Evan's sister (Raymee?Sp?) is holding Maelee.





Monday, June 8, 2009

18 Months Old

Last Monday, Paige had her 18 month check up. She is now 24 lbs 3 oz and 32.5 inches tall. She may be on the "average" size, but the doctor says she is as smart as a 2 year old, if not smarter. She says so many words I lost count months ago and she picks up more than a word a day. She knows many animals and is learning their sounds. She is a little parrot, so we have to be very careful what we say around her. But she is a happy, healthy child and we are so blessed by her every day.

Skateboarder too!

Justin was working at a job a week or so ago. Somehow he met some guy who brought him a little tiny skateboard for Paige. And of course, she loves it.






Dirt Bike Rider in our future.

My husband has this idea of who his daughter is going to be. She is going to be the beautiful girl who can get down and dirty with the boys. If you have ever seen Nitro Circus, then you know who Joleen is. That is his dream. He plans on buying her a dirt bike when she is around 3. She will also skateboard, play all kinds of sports. Basically if it is dangerous, she will do it. I will laugh if she chooses to become a ballerina instead. But she is kind of fearless so I imagine I have many years of gripping onto my husbands hand while my girl (with safety gear on of course) does dangerous stunts. I also invision there will be many trips to the E.R....





Tilden Park

On Memorial Day we decided to take Paige to Tilden Park for the first time. We grabbed Mikaila and headed out. Justin did not even know Tilden existed and was very excited to have another cool place to go. We were looking for little farm, but the park is very big. We found the carousel first. So we stopped and Mikaila took Paige for a ride. She won't go on a horse yet, but she had a great time.
Then we headed out and found little farm. We had brought a thing of celery and a head of romaine lettuce. All though, I was surprised we had anything left since Justin kept snacking on the way. He joked around that maybe we should just get him a cage and feed him lettuce and celery. He is a veggie nut!
Paige loved looking at the animals, but she did not want to actually feed them yet. She is still a little timid..

Petting the bunny.