Camping trips are some of my favorite childhood memories, and while I want my children to love camping as much as I did growing up, I've been reluctant to plan any camping trips for our family. I don't know - it is a lot of work to get ready for (and return home from) a camping trip, and my parents, bless them, have stepped up a number of times and have taken the kids camping without the hubs and I, usually when we've had business trips or whatever.

Last summer, we did a brief two-nighter in Bodgea Bay that featured me having to go home and work for one of the days, plus my dog getting sprayed by a skunk, and our sleeping bags were woefully inadequate, so we were frozen and unable to sleep well.

This year, we decided to do it again. With better sleeping bags and leaving the dog at the kennel, because yeah, it was a much better idea.

Sunday morning, the plan was to get out to the campground and stake out our favorite spot. My mom, dad and sister arrived to find the spot we wanted occupied by another family, who were packing up and leaving by the checkout time at noon. While technically they were not supposed to be harassing the other campers, my parents, sister and my parents' two dogs sort of hung out in front of the campsite. Rather than take a hint and start packing up, the people occupying the site decided to make friends with my family, and wanted to make some coffee and throw another log on the fire.

This was NOT part of the plan. Not only did the people linger right until noon, but their two young children attached themselves to my parents (and the dogs) and they spent the rest of the morning in cold, grey drizzle, babysitting some strangers' kids while the parents leisurely sipped their coffee by the newly stoked fire.

After loading and unloading and reloading and unloading and removing the middle seating row and then reloading the van, we made our way out to the campground, arriving moments after the people had vacated the chosen site. The kids enjoyed the ride out, wedged into the sea of sleeping bags:

Once we got into the site and started to set everything up, things got a bit crazy while we set up three tents and unloaded three packed vehicles (for two nights worth of camping.)

We settled down to roast some hotdogs for lunch:

And then some of us settled down for naps:

But not the kids, because there were sand dunes to run up and down. Whee! And scenes from World of Warcraft to recreate:

While the day never really got sunny, we made the best of it. We dumped each other out of the hammock:

Told stories around the fire:

Roasted marshmellows:

And made my dad play harmonica while we butchered some campfire songs (only in the key of D):

We finally collapsed in bed, sticky and sandy and slept like logs.

To be continued...