Camping in White Rock

We've wanted to take the kids camping for a while now but haven't been brave enough to take all three.  So we decided to head down to Gramma and Grampa's trailer in White Rock for some "cushy" camping.  The kids had a great time!  It gave us a bit of confidence to maybe do a longer camping trip next year...

We left the house after lunch and this is what they looked like by the time we arrived at the trailer.

The three of them slept while James and I set things up, which was really helpful.  When they woke up, they had a bit of a snack and watched Daddy try to start the fire.  The boys really wanted him to start it the "real camping" way - with a flint and steel.  It took a while...

We wanted to head down to the beach to play in the sand and try out the boogie board but, when we got there, there was no beach!  The tide had come in!  But we decided to go in anyway.  Daniel had a great time and didn't mind the rocks and seaweed at all.

I wasn't planning on going swimming and didn't bring a swimsuit.  I tried rolling up my pants but it wasn't enough!

Daniel dove right in!

 After our impromptu swim, we went back to the trailer site and finally got that fire started!

Success!

We set up our new tent.  It sleeps 8, I think.  We had plenty of room!  But it took up the entire campsite!

Dinnertime!  Barbecued hot dogs!

Time for some fun around the campfire.  We brought out the glowsticks, which the kids loved.  Sarah loved hers so much that she tried to eat it!  She wasn't too impressed when it broke and she got some of the glow stuff in her mouth!  Thank goodness it's non-toxic!  But her mouth glowed blue for a while!

Jiffy Pop popcorn over the campfire!

And, of course, no campfire is complete without smores.

Yummy!

Sarah loved her first taste of smores.

Yum!

Finally, we got them all into the tent.  I was impressed they all managed to fall asleep in there, with all the excitement and sugar.  Look how Daniel and Sarah fell asleep!

The great thing about cushy camping is that we can pretend we're camping in the woods in our tent but, when we wake up and it's freezing, we can go into the trailer and turn on the electric fire place.  :)  The kids enjoyed their breakfast of pancakes and hot chocolate.

We then took a walk along the road to pick flowers and play in the mud.

Back to the beach, now that the tide was out, for sandcastles and boogie boarding.  Daniel loved that thing!

Adam, of course, was content playing in the sand.

Sarah liked both - she did a lot of digging but also rode on the boogie board (and fell in the tidepools a bunch of times!).

Just as we were thinking of leaving, a train stopped right in front of the beach, blocking our access back to the campground.  We had to stay at the beach a little longer than planned.  Unfortunately, it was noon and we were getting hungry!  And everyone had to go to the bathroom!  (We ended up letting them go in a hole in the sand and then covering it back up again - oops!)  Poor Sarah was so cold from all her falls into the water.  What a sad-looking little girl!  We ended up letting her take her wet bathing suit off and letting her sit on the beach with nothing on, trying to shade her from the midday sun, since didn't bring any sunscreen down with us.

Finally, 45 minutes later, the train finally moved on and we could go back to the trailer.  We quickly bbq-ed some hot dogs for lunch, packed the campsite up in record time and headed home.  Of course, all three kids were so wiped that they fell asleep almost immediately in the van.  Nothing better than fresh air, camping and playing at the beach!