Road Trippin'

A 12 hour drive yesterday was the finale to our fun filled trip to Dublin to visit Jeff’s parents this week. You never know what kind of behavior you’ll get from the kids on road trips. We made the brilliant decision to drive up to Jeff’s parents at night (the night before the 4th) so that the kids would sleep and we could drive in relative peace. They both decided to remain awake. Nicky was happy as long as her three Barney DVDs were on rotation but Andy wasn’t very happy and let us know with much crying. When we arrived at 1 a.m. we were all exhausted. However, Nicky saw Miko (the dog), Fluffy (the cat), and Anthony’s (her cousin) plethora of toys and she decided she wasn’t tired anymore. She didn’t conk out until 6 a.m. Both kids started colds as soon as we got to Grandmas as usually happens on any trip. Needless to say we spent most of the 4th of July trying to recover from a long night. A heat wave hit the Bay Area during our trip so we partied at Tammy’s pool during the 105 degree day and then went to the park to watch fireworks.

Jeff’s parents are so good with traditions and always have a BBQ every 4th and go to the same park to watch fireworks. They even made homemade rocky road ice cream this year. Yummy! We let off our own fireworks too but decided to let some of our illegal things rest considering the heat wave and the fact that we are responsible parents now. Nicky loved the fireworks this year but she loved the bubble gun that Aunt Tammy brought more. Here is a picture of her and her cousin Emma and Anthony and many other random kids enjoying the bubbles.

At the end of our trip we embarked on the annual Camacho family camping trip. We had originally planned to camp in Modesto but since the heat wave showed up we headed up for camping in the mountains near San Mateo. It was beautiful the first night under the huge redwoods. However by morning, it was pretty cold and raining. This was Andy’s first camping trip. The four-man tent that used to seem pretty big when we were first married, now seems really small with the two kids sleeping with us. However it was fun sleeping with the whole team in the tent. I loved hearing Andy's little sighs and Nicky's snoring. The kids slept really well and Jeff and I would have slept better had the air mattress remained inflated and the woodpeckers had hung out elswhere. All part of the fun of camping! There was some forgetting of cooking supplies so Daniel made delicious bacon over tinfoil on the fire. Jeff made hot chocolate by covering his Mom's kettle with a couple of layers of tinfoil and setting it on the flames. I still want to try my hard boiled eggs bake potato style sometime.

Here's a picture of Nicky after she created little mounds of dirt over all the picnic tables. I had to laugh because everyone kept wondering where the dirt came from. The kids started to lose it yesterday from all the excitement and sleep deprivation so we decided to leave the camping at noon and let them nap a little in the car. We thought we would be home by 7 or 8 ish but instead we were trapped in the car for extra hours when we ran into construction. Andy wailed a lot and also made a complimentary barf so there were many stops. By 7:30 the car was quiet and Jeff and I decided to make a switch of drivers quickly. Jeff is so funny and refers to sleeping kids as “sleeping beasts.” If you wake the beasts before they are ready to be woken than they inflict much misery with their crying. We stopped the car and opened the doors as quiet as ninjas but the sleeping beast #2 (Andy) woke anyway and wailed for another 45 minutes before he went back to sleep. Poor Jeff had to make the whole drive pretty much by himself and we had to hold full bladders for fear of stopping the car and hearing the crying again. We held everything until midnight when we finally pulled up to our house.

Even though the trip home was a little miserable, I liked the fact that the long drive gave me time to consider my blessings and how grateful we are to have a family that has fun traditions we can be a part of. The camping trips are always eventful and it is always nice to get everyone together. I love making smores and telling and hearing funny stories around the campfire. Thanks to the Camachos for making another memorable camping trip and keeping up traditions every year. Nicky can't stop asking for her Grandma Karen and Grandpa. She loves getting to know her family better and she loves her cousins and aunts and uncles.