Three Musketeers: Zachary, Wyatt, & Yannick: Camping! Henry Cowell Redwood State Park

Camping!

The new owners of our rental home need to fumigate for termites. That means we have to get out, along with all of our food, medicine, and Dexter of course. They chose this weekend because we were planning on being out of town - camping in Yosemite with our bible study group. Unfortunately this was also the week that the government shut down which means the national parks did too. Scramble!! We still had to get out, but we could not get a holt for the daily rate the owners would pay for us to get out. Plus we really want to go camping! After searching, we found a spot available in Henry Cowell State Park! Days of packing, and we were finally ready. I packed the car, vacated the house with Dexter in tow. Took Dexter to the vet for boarding, took all our food to the Jantzens for safe keeping, ran some errands, picked up Wyatt from school at 12:30 (conference week) to terrible pizza lunch with W and Y, then back to school to pick up Zachary at 1:30 (conference week has odd hours), then finally off to pick up Art and head towards the Santa Cruz area.

All my pictures are out if order for some reason and I don't have the energy (or time!) to fix it.

Our last morning hike, after checking out. We are all in DESPERATE need of showers.

Art took ZW on a hike to the redwoods while I took a nap with Yannick.

In the sand!

First fire. I loved this fire pit because it was elevated which meant that most of the smoke did not get in your eyes when you were sitting down and the kids could not fall into the pit!

ZW hike with DaU

Our car carrier packed and loaded

Car is a "bit" full

Wyatt had a "field trip" today to the park that neighbors the school to collect parts of the trees they had been studying. Yannick and I were able to head over there with him.

Terrible pizza for lunch at a little hole-in-the wall restaurant near our house.

Our house - getting tented

Our new picnic tent set up for,the first time. It has a defect. I will need to contact the company because it is missing a pin that secures it to the bottom of the poles on one corner.

Unbelievably, Art got a nap in!

Our new tent - up for the first time!

Little guy using the magnifying glass to check out ants

He likes to put it right on his eye

On a hike with their bug catchers and holders

Uh oh, someone caught a "pest"

In a brilliant move by mom, using Zachary's car seat booster at the table for Yannick

All enjoying lunch

Fire time!

Art lucky with all three boys with him!

Crazies

Our friends, the Jantzen family, came up on Saturday to spend some time with us. It was also Ezra's birthday, so we had a little party for him. Here are most of the kids (minus E) ready for a hike.

Back at the campsite with yummy treats for Ezra's birthday

Zoe and Yannick - yum

Tobin and Wyatt

Crashed after the party

The main purpose of this photo is to see the fan we placed over Yannick to keep him cool during nap.

A chilly morning - Art in Justice League pants the boys gave him for Father's Day

Zachary befriended an inchworm named Inchy. He was quite attached to it

Asleep on the way back to Cupertino

A few items of note: the first night was SoSoSoSo cold. I was sleeping in long johns and fleece pjs, a hat, and mittens and was still cold. I ended up putting a cold Yannick in my sleeping bag. It was awful. I was miserable. The second night we put the rain flap over the tent and it was MUCH warmer. A bit humid in there but I was able to sleep.

We were not allowed back in our house until Monday morning. However, we could not camp another night and still get Art and Zach to work/school in time. The Jantzens offered up their home to us which was great! The kids are used to falling asleep there and they have a guest room.