Family Campout

We live at the base of San Gabriel Canyon, only a couple miles from the Angeles National Forest.  This campground is about 30 minutes from our house, but with no city lights and no cell phone reception, it makes you feel like you have traveled far away for this weekend vacation.  Our weekends have been packed, so when we finally had a weekend that was mostly free, we jumped at the chance to head up the canyon.

The kids favorite part was the river that goes through camp.  They collected rocks to throw in over, and over again.

The Warnicks joined us for dinner.  We roasted hot dogs and had a baked potato bar. (I cooked the potatoes in the crockpot before heading up the canyon.  They were wrapped in foil, and I planned to warm them over the fire, but they were still hot when it was time for dinner.) And then of course roasted marshmallows for s'mores.

James was very proud of his fire.  In the times we have been camping together, fire-building has not been his strongest talent.  I remember one camping trip we took (in Michigan?) when it had been raining and starting a fire was proving to be a difficult task.  I recall him saying we were close enough to town we could order a pizza for dinner.  I think I finally got a fire started, using lots of paper from our AAA travel books.  We now carry those books in our camping gear.

Our air mattress apparently had a leak, Ethan joined us in bed, a dog barked for what seemed to be all night long, and it was light out by 5:30am, but we got what sleep we could.

Because sleeping in a tent under the stars is an exciting adventure.

We made scrambled eggs for breakfast that we ate with rolls, (and had left over potatoes for those of us that are potato lovers).  Enjoying hot chocolate by the fire in the middle of the forest is a pretty great way to wake up.  As a side-note, the gas was leaking in our camp stove, so James started a big fire, in a place were we weren't actually supposed to have a big fire.  Luckily he got it out, got the stove fixed and working so we could make breakfast.

We then took some time hike around and explore the river a bit more before heading back to reality.