Thanks for the memories, Pismo!

Hello to all you blog readers! Jennifer here. This post will be my first ever - just wanted to make you aware in case I make a huge posting faux-pas. It was my assignment to summarize this year's annual Pismo trip. Here I go!

This event is supposed to be an all-inclusive family reunion type event for my mom's side of the family. In the past we've had over 50 people there camping for the entire week! This year there were so many conflicts (babies being born, weddings in Hawaii, families moving out of state, etc.) that the only people that showed were my parents and their children! Now, this was not necessarily a bad thing. We had a great time with just us. Read on to see all the fun we had.

The campground was totally full by the time we got there and the only 2 sites left were right across from the showers. These are the ones that back up to the dunes. They are not very big and not very level. We had an interesting time finding spots for all our 7 tents. So, like I said, the campground was totally full. You would not have believed how noisy it was all week. It was like there was a party every night until 2:30 in the morning! The campsite right next to ours was a family that played their loud music all day and all night. Then the teenagers would come out after midnight and hang out by the showers - skateboarding, laughing and whatever else. Where were the rangers?! To say the least, we were all a little sleep deprived while we were there.

That was all the bad news - now on to the good! We made it to more sunsets this year than ever before. They were gorgeous! (Check out Jeremy's short sunset video below.) We ate much Splash Cafe, bought candy at the Hot Lix store, fished off the pier at night, and visited the tide pools at Montana de Oro over the weekend. We rented wet suits and boogie boarded at Avila - it was perfect for our little kids. We went to the fruit stand in Avila and enjoyed the farm animals out back very much. We ate very well, in and out of camp. We had, beef stew, chorizo, dutch oven peach cobbler, tri-tip, chili verde nachos, cinnamon-bread french toast, bacon-french toast-sausage-eggs breakfast - and dad had even lost a pound by the time we got home!

Trevor and Logan were very busy this week. The boys were boys from the start! One day they organized a bike race for all the kids in the campground. They made a START and FINISH line, complete with flags and prizes. We had a great turnout with about 10 kids on bikes and one girl in her electric wheelchair. One of the big boys won the race, but everyone got a prize and everyone had fun. Trevor and Logan also had a great time on the beach one day catching seagulls. They made a special trap with buckets and lots and lots of bread/crackers/tortillas - whatever they could get those birds to eat. By the end of the afternoon they had caught 2 pigeons and of course let them both go home unharmed to their families. But I am convinced that the highlight of their trip was at the fire ring in the campsite. They made fire after fire, burning matches to their hearts' content. They each emptied a box and a half of matches! Don't worry - they were reminded constantly that this was only ok while camping - not at home.

Mom, Dad and Mica were troopers as they helped out with our kids day after day. They even took the kids to McDonald's one night and sent Jeremy and I out on a date - all by ourselves! They are so good to us.

We look forward to another exciting Pismo camping trip next year and can't wait to go back!