Friday, September 12, 2008

Van Damme State Park

I finally finished my latest sewing project so I feel compelled to update the blog. Since I haven't posted anything from our last 3 camping trips, I thought I would start there.

Van Damme State Park


The Biennial Moses Family Camping Trip (aka BMFCT, try saying that five times) this time around was held at Van Damme State Park, the last week in July. Originally we were supposed to go to Big Sur, but since it was on fire at that time, we changed it to Van Damme. Unfortunately, not everyone could make it. (We missed you Allen, Dad, Matthew, and Silverstein family.) But were happy to have Heather all the way from Chicago, and Mom, Stuart and Kaytlyn from Utah.


We stayed up in the meadow loop, for those that have been there before. The older kids just had a ball with their bikes and scooters and climbing the tree in the meadow. The younger ones had lots of room in the meadow to wander and the flattened grass kept them relatively clean. (Notice the bandage on O-Dog's nose: The night before we left, he jumped off the bunk bed ladder and his face met the edge of the toy box. Ouch!)


We spent time doing some geocaching, thanks to Garrett. The great thing about geocaching is that it took us some places we would probably not have known about and we were able to go on some mini hikes for the kids. It really was a lot of fun finding the containers and seeing what "treasures" other people had left. I highly recommend this for a fun activity when you go camping. Then Paul took all the kids on a real buried treasure epedition. They were all in awe of the bounty they found buried in the beach across from the park entrance.

We had some excitement on night in our campsite. I had put Miss P and O-Dog to bed and was leaving the tent when I heard a crunching noise coming from near the car. The kids lantern I was carrying was useless, because when I held it up to see what was making the noise all I could see was fur. I went running the opposite way throught the trees and over to our main campsite where everyoneone else was sitting around the campfire. (I know, nice mom huh! Runs the opposite way from her children when a potentially vicious critter may rip through the tent and drag her babies off into the woods to live as feral children... what is wrong with me????) Anyhoo, my heart was beating so fast and I couldn't catch my breath, but I managed to blurt out that there was a critter in our campsite. Well Ryan and Garrett grabbed their flashlights and ran over ther in the dark with all the kids at their heels. The next thing I heard was "SKUUUUNK!" and people running and screaming. Still sitting safely by the fire, I hoped he didn't spray. Thankfully the skunk just threw up his tail and ran away. Can you imagine if he had sprayed our tent????? Apparently skunks like Fritos, who knew????? We had a good laugh about the whole thing!

Other highlights from the trip included:

*The Girls trip to Mendocino for ice cream and a little shopping.

*Heather finding an alligator lizard under a log.

*Burying all the kids in the sand, one at a time.


*Hanging out at the beach under the bridge.

*Finding and purchasing our new favorite game, in the game store in Mendocino: Ticket to Ride (thanks Matt and Em! We are playing it lots!)


*Seeing the Devil's Punchbowl and hiking through lots of poison oak before realizing what it was and only one person getting it.

*All the yummy food that everone made! (Dutch oven potatoes, cowboy breakfast, spaghetti, thumb pies, goat turds, s'mores and more)

2 comments:

Shan B. said...

Looks like you guys had fun. Yeah we've played Ticket to Ride & it's tons of fun!! Have you ever heard of Catan? That's a fun game too. I'm not the best at these games but I have managed to actually win which makes me feel awesome!! You should check it out too!!

Shan B. said...

P.s. Your upholstery project turned out great. You are inspiring!! Do you have an easy pattern for baby bibs? Let me know.