First Family Camping Trip

Though Jake and I love camping - we camped with our respective families growing up; we camped together throughout our courtship and early marriage; he's camped all over the country; I've camped all over Europe - camping was not in the cards for a few years when the boys were really little. I just couldn't fathom being in the wilderness with two little boys in tow who were still in diapers.

Looking back at these photos of our very first family camping trip, they still look really little, but during the summer of 2005 Riley was potty-trained and we had hiking packs to lug them up and down trails. It was totally doable. So I prepped them by reading P.D. Eastman's Fred and Ted Go Camping - ad nauseaum. We did a dry run, in tents, in the living room. And, yes, I got them flashlights that roared as part of the deal.

We camped at a private campsite near Pescadero but spent most of our time exploring nearby Butano State Park. 

What a great place for boys of all ages! Girls, too. But it was a veritable forest primeval with towering redwoods, menacing sword ferns, tangles of blackberry bushes. And to satisfy their desire for creepy-crawlies, we found squishy banana slugs in the redwood duff and reclusive newts in the creek. The boys were captivated.

Butano quickly became a family favorite. We've camped there a few more times, though one trip was a disastrous five-hour trip. But that's a story for another post.