Columbus Day Camping

That's right - you saw correctly! I was given Columbus Day as a holiday this year. Usually, it is just the Government offices that receive this day as a holiday, but apparently, my school thought it was important. I will admit that I really needed a day off!

I put in some major hours on Sunday because I knew that I would not be home in the morning on Tuesday. I'm glad that I did that not only because it was great to not rush the family off the campground, but because I was apparently the only one who actually took Monday as a holiday. I returned Tuesday to over 100 emails again, and despite the catch-up work I completed on Sunday, I once again found myself far behind. Ugh!

Well, at least we were able to enjoy some family time and nature!! Apparently, the time away also helped my mood as Ken remarked in the evening that I wasn't "freaking out" about anything and seemed to be "less bitchy." Whoo-hoo!! There is a cure to my problem and it has nothing to do with the menopausal hormone fluctuations - it's just called WORK! Apparently, if I don't have to work, then I'm not a bitch. Something to think about.....

So, we arrived at Mojave River Forks in the early afternoon. Ken had to do some last minute shopping for a sleeping bag for me, and it was well worth the effort - the other one he had would have been too small. We chose the local campsite - it's literally 30 minutes away from us - because I wasn't sure the girls would actually enjoy camping. I didn't want us to get too far away and have them hate it, and I thought that a local one that would be easy "car camping" would be the best way to start them out. The last time we went camping which was back in 2007, the girls hated it. Understandably, I was worried, but Ken loves camping so much, and I used to enjoy it a lot...thus - off we went.

Once we arrived, we had our pick of the spots. There were a couple people in RVs in the full hook up section, but for tent camping, we were completely alone. We decided on spot #41, and we got busy on setting up.

The girls complete ran amok. They loved the wide openness of where we were, and they had a great time getting everything organized. They were not too helpful at setting up the tents in the wind (you have to love the High Desert winds), but they did pay attention to what we were doing and why. 

Mandy thought it was great to be able to sit and just chill out.

Ken worked to get some water filtered for us, and then we started looking for a small hiking trail. As it turned out - we had to cross the street for the equestrian trail in this area. Oh well. It was still a good 2 1/2 miles, and the girls loved seeing everything! The girls wanted to keep walking along the Mojave River (which is just an empty river bed), but they wanted to explore more and more.  Unfortunately, we were faced with an earlier sunset and we had to get them back to camp before we lost the sun.

 Ken was showing Mandy how to use the handheld GPS

Mandy and Jordan checking out the Mojave River - "what river?" was their question

 Jordan feels that she must pose in every picture

Taylor laughed at Ken grabbing my boob which we were out. The girls are used to it because he does it all the time, but Taylor made a statement, "Geez Mom. You just stand there when Dad does that." So, I made Taylor take a picture of my response. She faked gagging noises for over 30 minutes on the hike back in response. Haha!! 

Once we got back to camp, the girls were STARVING, so Ken broke out our meals. We decided on some MRE's and the girls were laughing at them initially, and they they opened the packages and it was like having a big party. The girls loved being able to check out what their kits had, and they were trading food around depending on who would prefer what.

 

Ken worked really hard to make sure that the meals were heated up as close together as possible.  Jordan did not listen (I know, it's a shock), so she wasn't able to have her meal heated up since she started opening her meal. There was no way to heat it up even in a pot of water without ruining it. Jordan learned the hard way about the MRE packages. She shrugged her shoulders and said maybe she'll be responsible by next year. Holy crap!!

During supper, I got a fairly good picture of the sunset. I was just using my small Nikon since I didn't want to risk taking out my larger one and having something broken or stolen.

The quality of the picture isn't great, but you can see how nice it was to just take a moment and relax.  The girls enjoyed some hot chocolate by the fire and they made some S'mores, but by 8:30, Mandy and Jordan complained they were tired and went to bed on their own accord. Wow! I guess some fresh air and hiking changes them a bit.

So, off they went into the tent.  There was some laughing and giggling, but they were out fairly quickly. Taylor was excited to learn that she could stay up with the adults and hang out. She didn't last very long after her sisters though. It was great to be able to actually see more stars. Taylor quickly ran into her tent when she heard some coyotes howling thinking that the tent would protect her. It was obvious that the coyotes were close, and I could see how she would have been frightened, but there was no getting through to her that they were going to be cautious around the humans.

Ken and I were able to enjoy the room in the 3 person tent. There would have been no way to add a third adult, but we were able to keep our gear inside the tent. I was fine in my mummy back until around 4 am when the temperature hit the low 40s. Unfortunately, my bag was so twisted up that it took me a while to figure out where everything was, so I couldn't get snuggled and warm before waking up completely.  By the time I was bundled up and getting warm, Ken was snoring and I couldn't stop laughing at my own thoughts that he had "vapor locked." Crap! So then I was awake for a while and very tired in the morning when everyone else was waking up. 

Just for the record, the joke is that the reason a man snores when lying on his back is because his balls fall over his butt-hole and he vapor locks.

So, when everyone else is excited and waking up, I was dragging ass. I did manage to get breakfast cooked and finally got some coffee in my system as it was time to start tearing down camp. 

We enjoyed lunch at the site as well before heading home.  The girls have asked when we can go camping again, and it is something they say that they would like to keep doing.  Ken is beside himself with excitement at this, and he is already planning all of the added gear and fun stuff to our list of necessary items to purchase before the next camping trip.