The Brown Bulletin: Camping Trip

We didn't have any big trips planned this summer because TJ is saving his vacation time, but we were lucky to go to Long Beach for a weekend trip with my parents and sister.

I guess we really can't call it "camping" because we stayed in a cute little cabin.

We got there around 5:30pm, unloaded the cars and then headed down to the beach. There was a pathway walk to the beach from the campsite, which was great not having to drive there. This is the only picture I got with Kenton in the backpack awake. Every time we put him in it, he would pass out (maybe I should wear it around the house for his nap times??)!

It was a beautiful warm night, so we whipped out the kite. Sophia loved running around with it.

The tide was out, so there were little pools of water that were fun to run in. Sophia was jumping the waves and took a little swim with her clothes on (not on purpose)! She was not too excited about it when her clothes got all sandy. I had a nice laugh!

She could not handle the wet sandy clothes, so we stripped her down for the walk back to the cabin!

As we continued to explore, we saw this sign posted by the bathrooms...There was no late walks for me!

I think this animal was out late and the bear found it! haha j/k. My mom was walking ahead of us and yelled, "There's a body!" I immediately thought that we were going to be part of an NCIS episode or something. We are thinking it was a seal....so sad!

On Saturday we went into town and Sophia and TJ went on a go-cart ride! She obviously thought it was loud.

TJ also read something about riding horses on the beach and called about it. Sophia has been wanting to ride a horse for 2 years now at the fair. Every year she talks as if she's going to do it, but when it comes down to it she never does. So, it was a big deal when she said she would ride a horse with daddy. I told TJ that I would just video tape (because I have only been on a horse once in my life and I didn't find it that fun), but he insisted that I go too for the "MEMORY"! And boy was it a BAD memory!!! TJ and Sophia's horse was named "Manny" and Sophia surprised all of us on how brave she was.

And this is ShyAnn! I have known a few "ShyAnn's" in my life and all of them are feisty, including my horse. There were about 15 of us who went on a ride and before we left 2 horses started nipping at each other, which made me a little nervous. I kept telling myself to stay calm, but it was hard. As we started off, the horses are suppose to walk single file through the brush to get to the beach. Miss ShyAnn started off great. I didn't even have to kick her to get going, UNTIL she made a right turn to go to her baby who was in a pen. She was NAYING so loud and her baby was doing it back which is really intimidating since I don't speak horse. There was a trailer that I was getting smashed against and I thought I was either going to get bit, get thrown into the pen, or jump over the gate. The cowboy was yelling at me to turn her around. I had to pull her so hard but then she went right back. TJ's horse was walking so nicely in line. I looked at him and mouthed, "I'M DONE!" And of course he just smiled. The cowboy had to fight with ShyAnn to get her coming. In the meantime we were behind the group and then ShyAnn decided to trot quickly to the group! AHHHHH! ShyAnn continued to try to turn around and I had to be rescued multiple times. Once she was on the beach she did okay. And when we got back, I told the cowgirl to get me off first because she wanted her baby. I was so glad to be walking on my own 2 feet!!!!

TJ had to take the picture because there was no way in HELL (sorry) I was going to take my hands off Miss ShyAnn. TJ tried to trot with Manny, but Sophia didn't like it because it hurt her legs.

PPPPPHHHHHEEWWWWWW! After that we went into town and got ice cream. Ice cream is much more my style! Beat that Baskin Robins...48 flavors and they make their own cones!

By the time we got back to the cabin, the sun was out and there was not much wind, so off to the beach we went! Grandpa and Kenton had matching hats and Kenton got to go on many walks with Grandpa which he liked.

We made a sand castle village and swam in the ocean. The water was actually really nice and even TJ got all the way in it (he's usually chicken in cold water)!