 1 Somebody has already done a face-plant while we're setting up! This time I didn't bring the stroller to strap this rascal into while setting up camp. Everything was fine - he is very accomplished on his feet, if he's looking where he's going, that is! I think there were only two or three of these vs about 8 the last campout. |
 2 Sam banged in the tent stakes all by himself this time and helped secure the rainfly, which is hard to do in the wind. He is getting very very helpful (although he really wanted to hunt millipedes at the time). |
 3 Blowing up his pillow. |
 4 Time for funny faces! |
 5 Now we're relaxing on our beds for a bit, doing BBC Birdwatch :) We were watching the myna birds right outside our tent - our tent door was rather like a big widescreen TV, in high def! |
 6 This is Ben's bossy look - eyebrows up, commanding us to do his bidding. "Get out of my way!" |
 7 "I'm taking a nap!" |
 8 Don't Sam and Turtle's eyes look the same here? |
 9 Saying "high-yah!" like we do to cut the waves in half. |
 10 Two brothers heading out to catch some waves. The water was warm and nice. I think the mountain range on Sam's boogie board is actually the one to the right here which you can't see fully in this shot. |
 11 That range... Isn't this guy handsome!? His hairs are doing the same thing that the trees are in the background, blowing in the wind. |
 12 Sam would have loved to go out further but without Dave around I had him stay relatively close. These waves can get pretty rough and there can be an undertow. It's hard watching two very active guys with very different abilities without feeling a bit crazy after a while! |
 13 Here is Big Ben running off from mom, chasing his shadow. He loves roaming far away, then running back toward the water, as well as seeing how far out he can get before a wave knocks him over. |
 14 Sam loves this picture! It looks like the fire is reaching to his shorts! His expression seems to be saying "Uh, mom, my shorts are getting a little warm. But I think my marshmallow is done." |
 15 Sam is a good toaster. |
 16 Ben loves to get up and roam around, and I think my new fire/cooking rule (which he is not a big fan of) is Ben needs to "stay put!" while mom is cooking. I don't want him loping into the fire while I go 6ft away for 2 seconds to grab something. I reinforce and reinforce but he is only 27 months, and has no good sense really. Here he is saying "Mom??? Can I get up now????" |
 17 Funny face time! |
 18 Sam would like me to show you each of these :) |
 19 Every campout should have football time! |
 20 And uke time! |
 21 This is the stage. |
 22 Now Sam is taking us on a snail shell hike. He likes to go roaming on his own, looking for landmarks along the way (this tree is one) so that he can find his way back. This is a great balance beam tree. They look like the lizards they love so much, inching their way up. |
 23 This is the look of NO GOOD isn't it?! And Bunny has quite a Cheeto face! Oh - did I tell you what we ate for dinner the night before? (This is a morning shot believe it or not.) We ate CHEETOS for dinner!!!! It was so fun! We have never done that before, but hey...one meal won't kill them. They loved it. A whole bag shared between us while we sat and chatted around our fire warming for s'mores. |
 24 More morning funny faces! This is a tradition to catch the groggy looks. They were very naughty going to sleep - I say naughty loosely. Mommy was tired and wanted to go to sleep but they kept laughing and doing "Ben-80s" (thumping feet on bed to sound like an M80 going off). Sam says if I ignore them they will quiet down more quickly. I will try giving them their own side of the tent next time and I will cordon myself off in my own mommy area! |
 25 Morning walk to the bathroom is so pretty. (oh! Last night Sam was taking a luxurious shower while Ben was saying "Mom it's stinky in here!" I finally looked and found a POOP! Right in Sam's shower! I had to clean it up - someone else's poop! yuck yuck yuck! Poor mommy. Then make sure my hands are totally clean before I pop my lenses out, and make sure Sam's feet are clean from swirling poop-water! It was a bit funny though...someone must have had to go pretty bad! But really - don't you think that mom would have figured it out and cleaned it up?) |
 26 Running back to the campsite. |
 27 We found 18 snail shells on the "Magic Finger Shell" hike this morning. |
 28 Now we're making pancakes and we're revisiting mom's "stay put!" rule during fire time. You can see Ben's reaction...same as before "Mom? Can I get up? Can I get up? Can I get up?" And Sam and I are saying "noooooooo!" |
 29 Sam took this one of me - looks like a manta ray, doesn't it? It's flax seed pancakes - you just mix with water. They were a tad runny but that made for easy cooking on the grill - real quick. |
 30 Yum! |
 31 Aw - thanks for being good, Ben! |
 32 And thanks for guarding our pancakes, Sam! |
 33 Lining up shells from largest to smallest. Ben takes largest shell prize! Now we are going to make another wind chime. |
 34 Love this face. This is how you do "Magic Finger Shell" hike - you use your shell finger to hold branches aside so they don't scratch you. |
 35 On our way to get mom some coffee (finally!). This is a 1/2" bird shell, swarmed by ants. There were partially formed bird bones inside. Did someone not quite make it out? Or did a mongoose eat it just before hatching? Who left the eerie holes? Looks like a skull! Really really odd! |
 36 Sam wanted me to take this movie...it's a quickie but potentially cute. |
