Campland On The Bay

Both Toby and my family camped a lot growing up and we have many fond memories.  We definitely wanted to introduce camping to our kids too!  With Makenna, we didn't take her on her first camping trip until she was two years old, but were determined to take Kyler at a much younger age.  We took him for the first time up to Dogwood campground in our local mountains.  We again got the opportunity to go on another camping trip to one of my favorite campgrounds from my childhood weekend trips: Campland On The Bay.  This campground is so much fun and is located in San Diego.  It has all kinds of special activities to do, has wonderful parks, used to have a frisbee golf course (I was saddened to see it was no longer there), and is located right on the bay.

Since Toby and I are brave enough to go camping for one night, we still weren't ready to go camping for two nights with the baby and since Jim wasn't able to go with my mom, we decided to send Makenna with my mom for Friday night and then would join them Saturday morning.  It was the first time that Makenna had ever really been away from us, so I have to be honest with you, I was a little nervous, although I knew she would have so much fun with grandma.  Plus, shipping off one child and all of her stuff with my mom was a pretty good car packing solution for us:-)  We found we had plenty of room...and for some reason it was a VERY quiet evening and car-ride the next morning...hehe (Yes, Makenna can talk, and talk, and talk...she takes after me).

Makenna did great with grandma on Friday night, although it was quite chilly so my mom gave us the heads up to bring some warmer clothes for sleeping.  Who knew that San Diego could actually get frigidly cold at night?  Makenna got her first Happy Meal on the way down to the campground with my mom and now will ask me when we go to McDonalds if she gets a toy.  I tell her that it is only for when she goes with grandma. (Hmm...I wonder how long I will be able to get away with her thinking that?)  And she slept well in the tent with my mom.

When we got down there the next morning Makenna wasn't ecstatic to see us like I had hoped expected, but instead was more interested in getting ready to jump in the swimming pool with great grandpa.  Makenna had such a great time splashing around the pool with great grandpa while Toby and I constructed our tent.  We then had to go over to the AMAZING playground.  It was way nicer then when I was younger.  Makenna had fun climbing on the play structure, but she stuck to the smaller slides.  And of course she loved the swings.

We had lunch, attempted to put the kids down for a nap (tents aren't too nap friendly), and then we went down to the water.  Much to my surprise, Makenna loved the ocean water and was even alright with the sand this time.  We hadn't bothered to put her in her swimsuit because we were certain that there was no way that she would go into that water as soon as she felt how cold it was, and honestly none of the adults wanted to go into that freezing water with her.  So we were so shocked when she went right into the water and kept going deeper and deeper.  We ended up having to tuck her dress up so it didn't get too wet.  Next time we will be prepared with a swim suit:-)

My mom and Toby attempted to help Makenna build a sand castle but she wasn't too interested.

Kyler had fun laying on the blanket while great grandma played with him and shaded him from the sun.

We tried letting Kyler feel the water too, but he really didn't like how cold it was...poor baby.

One of my other favorite parts about the campground is that they have an ice cream shop.  So, of course Makenna had to get some ice cream with great grandpa and daddy.

We had a yummy steak dinner and s'mores for dessert.  Makenna was excited to do s'mores until we actually did them and then she decided that she would rather just eat a piece of chocolate and go to bed.  She was exhausted from the day.  We made some new friends with the campers next to us and they came and joined us for s'mores also.  Then it was off to bed.

That night let's just say that none of us slept well.  It was REALLY cold so the baby was up every hour even though we had him wrapped up really warm (He hates being cold).  Makenna slept alright, but we had to keep tucking her back under the blankets because she likes to kick them off all night.  Toby and I were cold and kept waking up every hour when Kyler did.  So, our sleeping experience while camping didn't go as well as the first time, but we survived.  We had fun camping, now the long haul through the fall and winter months without camping because tent camping isn't fun in the cold and rain.