Birthday "DAY" and Camping!

Well as we all know our little man turned 2 just 2 days ago! He already seems older. Asking for more things, becoming more independant (he is sitting on the potty at school now...not GOING potty...but liking the idea of it), and of course becoming more Moody. Haha. He has been pretty good, we have a lot going on but I wanted to share of course his second birthday with everyone before we get to the hectic birthday PARTY this weekend. When I woke up he wasn't awake yet so I had to go ALL day before telling him Happy Birthday (sad mommy moment..go ahead..let those eyes water!) but Daddy did get to tell him that it was his birthday and to that Rian responded something to the affect of "Daddy it my car bir-day" Haha. Yes he thought his cars were turning to, and would NOT agree with RC that in fact it was HIS birthday and not his cars. Se La Vi, now we know when his cars get a year older to. WOOHOO. Anywho, after that RC had to pack him up, take him to school and along with him that morning he took 32 cupcakes! Yep, we are at that age, the age in which they get to share their birthday with their class. So fun. Some kids take pinatas or goody bags, we just took cupcakes. OH MY how baking cupcakes relaxes me, except for the night before Rians birthday because not only was it a long day for me, I got home and was missing half the ingredients, then I realized I was ALSO alone with all three kids, and had to bake and cook dinner still, Rian wanted "skett-oh's" which in Rian language is Spaghettios but we opted for Spaghetti instead so that even the grown ups could enjoy it. So while RC had to go to VIP night at the girls' school, I did what mothers do best and held down the fort, made dinner (YUM!), cleaned up the kids (tiring), and although it slightly stressed me out and got RC and I in a little (useless) argument, by the time we sang happy birthday and opened presents (He had one little one from us, a few from Grandpa Rich and a card from Great Gma and Gpa Sibson, all was well in the world again, or at least our household. At Rian's school they sang to him, made him a birthday hat and ate cupcakes together. SO cute. Instead of me blabbing some more why don't I share some pics with you...then I will tell you about our FUN LABOR DAY CAMPING TRIP!

Our HOME celebration! Some pics from SCHOOL celebration...

NOW CAMPING STORIES!

Well you see, I am 28 years old, I have never taken ALL 3 of my kids camping and to be honest I took my FIRST camping trip when I was 21 sooo, I have had limited camping experience. SO when we decided to go camping with our friends the Snooks, we were excited, nervous and then excited again cause if anything this would AT LEAST be a bit of an adventure.

Friday- We had planned on leaving at 330 but after stopping for fishing stuff, getting last minute items packed up and us of course running our usual 30-60 minutes late we were FINALLY on the road. I am sure the stress of the departure was not only felt in our car but also the Snooks as they had two little boys who were NOT happy campers heading up there. We listened to Justin Bieber, we let the kids watch The Simpsons...I know I know...should have been Elmo or something more kid friendly but hey, at least it wasn't Family Guy! We had planned on BBQ'ing a really yummy dinner our very first night but after all the time to set up, get situated and the amount of stress that that added to ANYTHING, we opted to do plain ol' hot dogs. Now, let me tell you really quick that when we were leaving we had thought it would be warm and lovely up there by the Russian River but when we showed up at 6 or so, it was freezing, the fog had already rolled in and here we were in our shorts and t-shirts. We were more than just a little scared about the rest of the weekend! Either way we all got bundled up, and we ALSO found out that although our campsite had originally been taken over by our neighbors (who so graciously moved their stuff to THEIR spot right after our arrival, we knew them as well. Well, let me rephrase...GABE knew them. Haha. So we had a good first night but the downside, they all went to bed by like 930! What the heck, I thought camping was all about putting the kids to bed at 930 and the parents staying up all night...oh well...onto day 2!

Saturday- By this time, I realized our family is morning people. We were all up by 7am, rustling around and trying to get our things together and we ended up eating some breakfast (I think this was the day we ate donuts...is it bad that I can't even remember last weekends specific details!). We munched and munched and then we hung out, then we muched some more and then we ended up at the RIVER! This is where the fun starts. Now remember I said that Friday it seemed cold, well, you see, that morning (Saturday) the fog was actually burned off pretty quickly so we actually had fun. We took sandwhich makings down, some snacks and of course some drinks. The fun part was that the kids loved just being outside, playing in the sand (actually more like pebbles) and despite the fact that Noah and Aaden were not entirely thrilled by the water, the other kids were which kept them out of our hair. I have tqo funny things to add to this moment and that is that Gabe on our walk to the river, ended up knowing TWO more people, apparently he went to elementary school with them. What are the chances! After our exciting day we ended up back at the campsite where we started prepping food and yumminess, we had BBQ chicken and steak and potatoes and baked beans and green beans. OH GOODNESS. So good! The kids all chowed down, we sat by the fire and the fog didn't even roll in until WAY later...so nice. We did have multiple panic attacks about the fire, the RV steps and kids falling off and we even got to let the kids enter Phoenix into the dog contest they had and let them go for a hayride...totally fun stuff! The girls won 2nd place (I think he should have won 1st...but whatever!) THe night was fun, we talked about drinking and why I don't do it that often, we talked about our families and as if our camping trip wasn't already fun, Gabe opted to hook up the cable and bring the TV out. Not necessarily my favorite thing, but it kept us entertained and hey, that is what camping is all about...entertainment!

AGAIN..the folks at the campsite were all in bed by 1030! WHAT IS GOING ON!

Sunday - We woke up early, had toast and bagels, thanks Tiff, and we got dressed, got packed up and were actually off to the beach at a pretty decent time. It took us a LONG time to get there (okay not really but any trip with kids is long..haha) and once we stopped at the place to get to the beach, which was ACTUALLY the wrong place but we figured we would try anyways...we unpacked, got the kids in strollers and such only to find out that the twins stroller wouldn't fit down the path. SOO we took them out, shifted some stuff around, helped to carry the kids and then off we went. OR SO WE THOUGHT! About 10ft into the walk through this SCARY path Carina and I saw a snake and complete with screams and tears (from Carina, not me) we ended up back by our cars and heading to the RIGHT location, called Goats Rock. BEFORE we went to the beach we did decided to eat, because after the beach it was going to be too late. Tihs is where our SUNDAY adventure starts. We had two choices for restaurants. An Indian restaurant and an restaurant attached to an Inn. We opted for the Inn because it LOOKED the most normal, little did we know. We should have taken the clues and walked out when the waitress of all people recommended another restaurant for us just a half mile up the street. ANYWHO. We sat down anyways, ordered our drinks and noted that 1. they didnt even have a soda fountain, so we paid money for soda out of cans 2. they had crappy ice tea and 3. in the first 10 minutes there she had ALREADY told 2 other families about the other restaurant and 1 family had walked not even 5 minutes after being seated. WHAT THE HECK!To make a long story short, the food wasn't THAT bad, but not worth the money we paid, we didn't get one of our salads, and she gave us extra fries, we not only saw one other couple walk out, but we saw our waitress cry at least 3 times. Whatever was going on we NEEDED to get outta there! We ate, paid and left and then OFF we went to Goats Rock. Do note, that when we passed the Indian restaurant it was PACKED, guess we didn't get the memo.

Anywho, we got to Goats rock, hiked down the little rock walkway, the weather was GORGEOUS, we got to enjoy not having sweaters on and all! The kids played in the sand, we played some football and we got some good pics. NOT great, but good! The boys again weren't fans of the water, it was pretty cold, but they did love the sand. They loved to play in it, walk in it, touch it and at some points, eat it. Yes that includes Rian. He would get iton a car then wipe the car off, then wipe his face and end up with sand in his mouth. Oh fun times. The girls finally played a little with the water, mostly just letting it touch their toes and then running away. OH and get this...while we were there at the beach, a ways from our campsite...GABE SAW ANOTHER PERSON HE KNEW! Is anyone keeping count here...Haha.

After the beach we headed home, got some more liquor (we were social drinking...okay I give, we were having a DAMN good time!), got some more firewood and headed back to the campsite only to find out that after Tiff spent TONS of time shredding chicken for enchiladas (another cool reason for the RV) Phoenix ended up eating all of it! OMG. So we had to make do with what we had and actually it turned out pretty dang good! That night we had big plans to stay up late again but to be honest after the day we had it was nice to just FINALLY have some time to relax, sit around, talk and enjoy all our kids being asleep.

Monday- We packed and went home. LOL. Not much to tell other than on OUR trip home the fun points of the day were that we had a bee in a car which came complete with little girls screaming and crying and us eventually pulling an illegal driving move to pull over. haha. We pulled over, bee got out. All was well again, until 5 seconds later Neya tells us (after we ALREADY turned in a direction where there wasn't an easy spot to pull over)that she had to pee REALLY bad. We of course, pulled another illegal move to pull over, pulled her out of her carseat only to find she had peed a little already and then I stripped her and let her pee again on the side of the road, I am sure that is illegal but hey, who cares! ,We gave her a quick bath with wipes, and threw her in the car, completely naked from the butt down! haha. Our clothes were all in the bottom back of the car so we set one sweatshirt on the seat and another on her lap to cover her and then off we went to pick up McDonalds, head home, eat, unpack and then get ready for work the next day!

Man this trip was hectic, crazy, full of new experiences but all in all it was F-U-N! I am glad we enjoyed it with good friends and that ALL the kids had a blast! Hopefully we can do this again sometime soon. Until then...enjoy some pics...not ALL the pics, not even CLOSE, but at least a few to let you see all the fun we had :)

ALSO NOTE: When we left the beach that day...we noticed that there were signs all over and people were telling us that we were smart to not let our kids get too close to the water as that beach was one of the most dangerous (if not THE most dangerous) beach in all of California. haha. What great parents. Needless to say it has the highest death toll due to HUGE drops and "sneaky swells" in the water. Go figure. Just one more thing to add to the excitement of our trip :)