beach camping beginners

 And let me start off this post with a photo of Maximus because, well, that is just what I do.

Picked up this hiking backpack at a garage sale (they have awesome garage sales here) and though we are not hikers it makes the perfect spot to set a non sitting up yet, non sleepy baby on the beach.  

When I hear the word camping I think of 1) mosquito bites 2) cold at night 3) dirty everything 4) good times.  Well, it just so happens that numbers 1-3 are from my days of MOUNTAIN camping.  That is all I have done, really.  But on the beach it was different.  Loved it.  Yes, there was the massive amounts of preparing and packing (and it seems like one more kid means we need 6 times more stuff).  Yes, I did stress out because my idea of getting ready (planning for days ahead) and the husband's idea of getting ready (throwing stuff in the car 10 minutes after we were supposed to leave).  Those things weren't any different.  And neither were the good times that we had.

Kids happily playing in the sand, beautiful ocean scenery, and a rainbow.  

A sunset so pretty, I had to post two shots of it.

Splashing and boogie boarding until it's time to grill some dinner (why does food taste so good when you're camping?), roasting marshmallows, figuring out how to get the baby to sleep in a tent, sitting around the campfire and getting to know your friends a little better, playing some games, the kids running around until they are exhausted and crawl in the tent and fall asleep (without us telling them to go to bed!)... serious happy times.  

So let me tell you how the five of us ended up in this two man tent.  Remember how I said that the husband and I prepare differently?  One of those ways, I won't say which, is totally lame and stressful and ends up forgetting important things like tents.  So then a cute young couple was so sweet and slept under a tarp so we could use their tent.  The tent forgetter, I won't say who it is, wanted to sleep under the stars anyway.  One of us fell asleep as the tent forgetter was telling his findings on Google Sky (or something like that).  And it worked out that tent forgetter is the heaviest sleeper ever because he didn't even noticed when it rained on him.

So, here's the thing.  We lived minutes away from the mouth of two awesome canyons for FIVE years and camped up there once.  ONCE.  Lame.  

Let's hope we don't be that lame with beach camping.  Ha, and then maybe we'll have a chance to use our tent.