Petaluma Camping - Part One

Back in July we made our first camping trip as a family to a place far far away....the Petaluma KOA campground.  Even though it took 10 minutes to drive there it felt like we were much further away and the kiddos had a blast!

The tent camping spots are not the most ideal or picturesque, but again, the kiddos didn't mind at all.  It was nice that our sites opened up to an open space with a volleyball net.  We brought some badminton rackets and had fun playing.  Damon and I had a few rounds as well :)

Landon absolutely loved camping...he was full smiles all the time.  So much so that he didn't even want to sleep.

As always, Shasta had a lovely time as well.  She was an exceptionally good girl - I love taking her places!

C had a lovely time.  She loved sleeping on the cot with me, going through the clothes and cleaning up our little tent.  

Our first day we just unpacked, got situated and had a yummy dinner.  Why does food always taste so good camping?

C did a ton of guitar playing for us by the campfire...

All tucked in and ready for sweet dreams :)

4th of July - Part Two

While the sun set and the fog prevented us from watching the many fireworks shows surrounding us, we had our own little fireworks show with the little (and big) kids...

I was having a lot of fun playing with different lighting with my camera.  All these years of photography later and I am still amazed at what you can tell your camera to create.

Then we headed out to the driveway for another show...the kids were so excited.  They didn't even know that they missed the real deal.

A few group pics at the end of the night...

4th of July - Part One

At least I will get our 4th of July pics posted before Labor Day :)

We headed up to the ranch for a lovely relaxing day celebrating life.  It was awesome because all sides of my family were there - C was in cousin heaven!

Damon spotted a house fire down in Petaluma - Ron grabbed his fire station radio and confirmed it was a house fire.  We watched the emergency department extinguish it pretty quickly.  You just never know what you will see up on the mountain :)

The girls played in the driveway on the various bikes - I really love not having to worry about C playing alone outside.  I am getting better with her being in the backyard without me at home, but I get nervous and my mind starts wandering way too often.  It is a tough balance for me to allow her appropriate independence and trust to make good decisions.  I just watch too much crazy tv that makes me paranoid.

Happy girls!

One of the many 'games' the girls played was making magic potion with leaves, grasses and some water.  They had two containers and were trying to get the adults to 'vote' on the best one.  :)

As much as the afternoon had perfect weather - the evening wasn't as kind to us and we got fogged in for the fireworks.  It was a bummer, but we still made the best of it.  Pics in the next post :)