Camping, take two

We got back yesterday afternoon from the Cowell Family annual camping trip to Pismo Beach. Our group was a little smaller than usual this year, John and Jenna and Rachel and Naomi having decided not to go, but it was a fun group. Ken and Elly slept in their motor home, and the rest of us built ourselves a little Hooverville of tents and roughed it, Bri and Ash and Eszter in their huge tent (the Taj Mahal), us in our slightly less huge tent (the Hermitage), Heather in the Armadillo tent, and Jeff in the unnamed but much loved little tent that Nathan and I abandoned when Judah came along.

It was a very fun weekend. The weather in Pismo was almost perfect, not too cold but not hot, just a little hazier than we would have liked. We spent lots of time sitting around the camp fire, walking down to play on the beach, and eating really good food. Two mornings we had sugar-coma-inducing, perfectly-cream-cheese-frosted, unbelievably delicious Old West cinnamon rolls. On Thursday night Nathan, Judah, Ken, Elly and I went to town for dinner, discovering Mo's, home of the best shredded pork sandwich I've ever had, and corn muffins to die for. And, of course, Nathan and I had to sneak in for the (second) best chowder on earth in toasted bread bowls at Splash Cafe.

On Saturday afternoon most of us (except for Brian, to whom we are eternally grateful for babysitting Judah) went to the melodrama in Oceano for a pretty funny performance of "Drac in the Saddle Again" and a vaudeville review. So much fun! It's one of our favorite parts of the trip every year.

Other than that, we just hung around camp a lot, chasing the kids, playing dominoes, making s'mores. Judah did alright at night, waking up a few times the first night, and doing better the other two nights. Naps got thrown out completely. We have another camping trip (Oi!) coming up at the end of this month, this one with a few other couples from our Sunday School group. There are other small children involved, so it should be fun.

A few quotes stick out from this weekend. One from Eszter: "I can't get the ball. You get it, grown ups!" and one from Jeff: "If that was my dog I'd name it Casserole" and one from Elly after I commented that I wished the sun would come out: "Yeah, and get the fog out of here!" Say it out loud. It'll be funny.