Our camping experience

Maybe you have been wondering how Benjamin's first camping trip went? He did amazingly well throughout the weekend! It all started with a 13 hour car-ride: 7 hours to Redding, CA (from Santa Clarita) and then another 6 to wind our way over to the coast! On the way up we opted for the drive-all-night option, which proved to be a smart move. Benjamin slept for about 8 hours, which is 3 hours less than he normally sleeps at night, but 8 hours more than I envisioning! During the entire trip up he cried a total of maybe 15 minutes. We were all amazed!

The campout itself was just the same as it's always been--we all sit around the campfire (or other, more shady, part of the common area) and reminisce. Every few hours the person responsible for the next meal gets up and starts working on preparation. Then we eat and talk some more. OK, we did have a little excitement, like going to the beach and to the river near the campground. At the beach the tide was super low so the water was very shallow for a good margin. I put Benjamin's feet in it and he seemed to like it. It was hard to tell because I was just trying to hang onto him and keep him from eating sand. I didn't really get much of a chance to enjoy him experiencing the ocean. That was actually the hardest part of the campout for me...missing things the group was doing and not even really experiencing much of what Benjamin was doing sometimes, just because I was solely responsible for him. I don't know if that makes sense. Like I said, my whole beach experience was trying to keep the sand out of Benjamin's eyes and mouth. (I didn't succeed entirely in the second endeavor.) Finally I announced that Benjamin and I were going on a walk, if anyone would like to join us. Becky took me up on it and she, Jay, Jonathan (her 3 and 5 year old) and I walked hand-in-hand in a big long line with Benjamin in the Snuggli on my front, up and down the beach. Those boys are so sweet. :)

The river was a story. We went once the first day we were there, without incident. Mostly to cool Benjamin off, who was so sweaty his whole head was wet and stinky! The second (and last!) time I went I was there with Becky, the boys, and Greg. I carefully waded a little way into the water (the bottom of which was covered with smooth, somewhat slippery stones) with Benjamin. I had been there a total of maybe 15 seconds when Greg, who is upstream from me, points downstream in my general direction and calmly says, "There's a snake in the water." For those of you who may not know how severely that announcement affected me, I am TERRIFIED of snakes of any variety! I'm not sure how I got out of the water without dropping Benjamin or slipping and falling flat on my face. I did see him, once I was safely out of the water, and he was pretty small, judging by the size of his head which was periscoping out of the water several feet from where I had been. Still. [Shudder shudder] He eventually swam away and I tried to sit on the bank for awhile, but just wasn't very comfortable and wasn't really having a good time anymore, being so jumpy and all. Then I saw a scorpion and it was all over. Buh bye. Benjamin and I had to go back to the campground.

And unfortunately I didn't take a single picture of the whole experience. Mostly because it was a full-time job just getting Benjamin from point A to point B. There was no room for a camera in the scenario. Looking back, I should have appointed someone else the keeper of my camera and had them take the pictures. Oh well. We have some great memories :)