We always end our Mt. Madonna trip with a beach day.
The water was cold, as always, but Bug and a couple others spent some time surfing while most of the rest of us braved the water without wetsuits for boogie boarding and wave jumping. I only get in once or twice a summer, and this was the day (and I convinced two of the other moms to join me!)
Bug started feeling like a legit surfer--we had the boards since the family who they belong to had too much stuff they needed their roof rack for.
And. . . on the way home, he got his own board! (It's sandwiched between the other two up there.) We grabbed pizza with everyone after the beach and then our friend who has been such a great mentor for Bug for all things surfing related (along with another friend) took us to a couple surf shops to search for a board. Bug ended up getting the one that the Santa Cruz Costco carries because it was just too good of a deal for a beginning surf to pass up. He's excited to keep learning!
It was our 6th year camping with this crew (and a couple new additions.) We look forward to the few days we get together where the kids can just be kids and embrace the dirt, free play, and total chaos.
There was a lot of card playing,
learned a few new games like Egyptian War and Mao,
and had a Nerts showdown with Shelley dominating!
We hiked--moms went out two mornings, and then the bigger group did a short hike one afternoon
(and saw a snake! Actually, I saw two, but this one was nice and posed long enough to get a picture. Garter snakes--nothing dangerous.)
Peanut and his friend, E, put together a talent show the first night. They told jokes,
did card tricks,
and got people to sign up to sing,
do more card tricks, and even got the moms to do a "fire" dance, with broken glow sticks, haha.
There was a lot of lying around in hammocks (or swinging like crazy from the younger half of the group.)
And the deep philosophical discussions that happen around the campsite. Lots of storytelling
and laughs.
Lots of time hanging out with friends--we had 5 families represented, although there were only a couple of us who had everyone there (well, everyone living at home--we were actually the only ones with everyone there because of older kids who have real adult jobs now.)
The dads were sadly underrepresented--there were three total the last two nights--Daddy-o was on his own the first night, which was different since he always came up late the first few years.
It's a fun group and always a good time. I love that our kids get to have a similar summer experience as Daddy-o and I each did, camping with friends or family year after year, growing up together.
And I'll just end with what is probably one of the funniest pictures and represented some of the change that has happened over the years:
Bug and his groupies watching him chop wood. The girls were hilarious and this is just an example of some of the funny things we saw or heard the tween (and a couple of teen) girls do while we were there in realtionship to Bug. They were mostly off doing there own thing, but every now and then. . .
Love this group and the memories we make each year.
I have so many back-posts to do, but decided the only way I'm not going to feel hopelessly behind is to spend a few minutes every couple days on the current events so I don't have even more to make up when I finally go back and fill in.
So, here we are--Saturday night, we got to fill a long time bucket list and go to see Les Miserables.
We had tickets in 2020, but of course that didn't work out, so I was really excited when I saw it was coming back.
(I love the Orpheum--my favorite place to see things coming through the area.)
It was just as good as I remembered and blew us all away. No matter how many times you listen to the music or watch a movie version, nothing can compare to seeing it performed live. The kids all loved it and now I'm on the lookout for more things coming our way. I'm kicking myself that we didn't plan better for our trip to NY last year because we ended up not seeing anything while we were there. Missed opportunity for sure.
Actually, we had two newbies--Daddy-o worked in the kitchen all week, and Peanut got to have his first Camp Ritchie experience. Bug was up there as a youth leader,
and I got to go up with these amazing women who I serve with over all the youth in our church in Pleasanton, Livermore, and Dublin.
Daddy-o was a hit in the kitchen. He worked hard (they all do in there)
and made some delicious food,
and I think even had fun (enough that he said he'd be willing to do it again next year.)
He was a huge hit with the girls when he came out with the churros (sorry for the terrible quality--someone sent me the video and it didn't come through well, but just know that the only man up there is Daddy-o, haha.)
I was working with this great lady on the day hikes.
We only got to hike together the first day when we were scouting things out,
(and I took the opportunity to take a few pictures of things I was seeing that I knew I wouldn't have time for on the rest of the hikes)
and then we spent the next two days leading different groups of girls.
One of my groups got to canoe to another part of the lake
where they swam and jumped of rocks for a couple hours before we hiked a mile back to camp.
My other group did a longer hike and they were so awesome.
We hiked to Fanny Falls and then hung out there for about an hour, soaking our feet, filtering water, and eating lunch.
Some of them went all in, haha.
I love getting to be a part of these activities with the girls.
One of our goals with the hikes this year was to give the girls a chance to lead--we talked about what types of trail markers you might see on a hike and then let them find the way for us. We stopped at a couple fun sites--like this huge sugar pine tree and an osprey nest that is in the top of another tree near by. It's a beautiful hike.
I was just there the first half of the week when the girls were there, and then headed home on Thursday as the boys were driving up for their turn.
And then Peanut had his chance to try out all the fun.
From all reports, he had a great couple days. Repelling was his favorite, which I was pleasantly surprised because heights can make him a little nervous but apparently he's outgrown a lot of that.
Didn't get a lot of pictures of Bug, but here he is at the craft rotation. I love that the boys had this station this year. They made cards for foster kids, learned how to crochet, or played board games while they were there.
Bug spent weeks ahead of time working on camp with the other older boys--they were assigned a group to work with at camp, planned the activities, and Bug even got to design the t-shirts! He had a great time--it's a little sad that this is probably his last year. I kind of hate that our kids are growing up. But then there's all the new fun stuff coming, so it's fun to watch, too.
