San Clemente

Throughout the year there are quite a few things I look forward to. Birthdays, putting up Christmas decorations, the day after Thanksgiving shopping, and always always going beach camping in San Clemente.

We have been going beach camping with Austin’s side of the family for at least eight years. Each year there are at least 50 of us who camp. We try to reserve the group campsite that’s tucked back in the corner where we have our own area overlooking the ocean and we all fit comfortably. It’s beautiful and perfect. It has gotten tricker and tricker to reserve this group site and even tricker to reserve it over the week we want to go. There have been times in the past where we have been scattered into three and four campsites or have gone in the early weeks of June where it isn’t quite warm enough. Both ways don’t feel quite right. Somehow, someway this year the stars were aligned and we got the group campsite for eight days. Even better, over the 4th of July!
We have some great traditions while we are there. We always choose a theme for the week and we vote for it the last night of the trip so that we have a whole year to gather things…and trust me, we end up with A LOT of stuff. We also sign up to be on a committee to help plan the next year. There is a decorations committee and the camp is always decorated so festive with the theme and all the families go all out collecting shirts, blankets, accessories and whatever else they can find to compliment the theme. My favorite was when we had a Western theme and someone brought a horsie clock that neighed and galloped on every hour and half hour. Since I had Dax, I have tried to make something for the boys that goes along with the theme. When we had a “boot camp” theme I made Dax a flannel camo blanket. When it was a “baseball” theme, we choose the Phillies and Austin and I wore some of Austin’s old jerseys and I made Dax a matching one. Last year our theme was “superheros” and I made the boys matching capes. This year the theme was “pirates” and I made both the boys pirate bandannas.

Side note, it is virtually impossible to get a picture with both boys at the same time, so don’t mind that most of these pictures will be of them individually.

Each year the activities committee has an obstacle course around the camp. I don’t know why, but it’s one of the highlights of the week and the kids love it. Dax has ran the past few years and this year stood in line over and over again to try and beat his personal record. It is such a riot watching the kids run around. They also buried treasures in a sandbox for the smaller kids and the little ones played in it all week long. Thanks Aunt Miki and Aunt Jenny for all the fun!
Another highlight is the “store”. This is another one of our committees where the committee brings lots of fun goodies for the kids to "buy". The kids earned gold coins and bought coloring books and crayons, eye patches, tattoos, swords…so many fun things. Aunt Lisa and Shauna really out did themselves. Of course, the best part is the beach. Every day we pack the same lunch: PB&J’s, Diet Coke, chips, and peanut M&M’s and head down to the beach for hours of fun. It makes me so sad that I grew up at the beach and my boys only get to enjoy it for two weeks out of the year. With that being said, we truly do our best to make up for lost time and play hard. Each day there always seems to be a vicious game of Ultimate Frisbee where it is at least 10 on 10 and we get the whole beach watching all the crazy guys and kids run around. Austin and his brother and brother-in-law play another silly game where they stand a few yards apart and throw the Frisbee at one another and don’t catch it, but let it hit them and different parts of the body are various points. It’s so silly and funny at the same time and they look like idiots with red marks across their chest where the Frisbee hits them, but they play every day and laugh their heads off. They are known for the dumb games they make up but they are so entertained. The kids dig in the sand and play in the water and have the best time. It really can't get better than that. I know if I still lived by the beach, we'd be there everyday in the summer. For the 4th we went down to the beach early to claim our spot for our huge group and my best friend Ashley came up for the day and visited. Since the majority of Austin's family is originally from CA, there always seems to be a handful of visitors throughout the week. This year we deemed the 'year of the visitors'. The last day of camp we ended up counting all the people we had camping and the total number of visitors and it's outrageous. We had 44 campers in all, 15 tents, 3 trailers and 63 visitors! It was crazy, but it's always fun to have more people at the beach to play with. We BBQ'd and watched fireworks from our beach chairs overlooking the ocean. Dax was so impressed.

One of my traditions is to try and get a family picture on the edge of the campsite overlooking the ocean. We have every year and I love looking back. I am quickly learning though that it is almost impossible to get a decent picture with all four of us looking at the camera and smiling. The boys are so wiggly and never wanting to stay still and look at the camera. It was the same story with these pictures. We never got a decent one, but I am so glad Misti kept taking pictures at our attempt to look perfect even when the hair pulling and goofiness started. Poor Austin got the grunt of the hair pulling. These pictures make me smile ten times more than the perfect, posed one we will probably never have because it's a little window into our everyday life.

We can't wait for next year. We're already planning. The theme? Disney