Camping So Cal Style

A few weeks ago, we went "camping" with our friends from Evan's class at school.  I say "camping" in quotes because I like to overuse quotes because they're awesome and also because we didn't stay the night.  I also enjoyed poking a little bit of fun at my big city friends for how organized, controlled, undirty, and comfortable their camping style was...but I really had no room to talk because we went home for the night instead of roughing it in the "woods" (toilets, running water, paved parking...a couple next to us even left in a huff when they realized there weren't hot showers on site).  Actually, the reason we left is because all of our camping stuff is in Flagstaff (or who knows where by now...we left it in Jeremy's old office at our old church because we were pretty sure we would be coming right back to Flagstaff and we hadn't needed it the whole year we were in California....go figure!).  If anyone is heading this way and wants to bring it to us, we'd appreciate it :) 

So wonderful to be back in the woods again!  I think I said it like 20 millions times to Jeremy.  It was a beautiful day!

Sam made a friend and they got to know each other in true "guy" style...by practically ignoring each other

Annie and her friend, the fashionista, Paulina.  They are so cute together!  (read: there's going to be a lot of pictures of them in this post).  You can guess which one might be a little more bossy.  

Sam and the other boys were so happy to be wild and free.  The neighbors in the campsite 5 feet from us, not so much.

See, our friends even have stylish camping rocking chairs!

And a tent they set up "purely for show" (that is an exact quote).  They fully intended  on sleeping in their Suburban, but wanted to have the full "camping" experience.

Deluxe padded bed setup inside.

My glamorous camping buddies, Fabiola, Michelle, and Julie.

(Really, I warned you about the cuteness)

What does the raccoon say?

Ring-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding! Fraka-kaka-kaka-kaka-kow!

I was having fun pretending to be an official photographer, practicing taking sunflare photos or whatever.

There was mostly just a lot of sitting around relaxing (because we weren't about to go off on a hike and leave all that valuable camping equipment unattended).

Julie and Steve

Fabiola and Francisco

Michelle and Max

Again with all the cute!

Hatee-hatee-hatee-ho!

Last one, I promise!

Sunset, glow sticks, fire...what more could you need?  Oh, that's right, scary stories of creepy people lurking in the woods due to too many episodes of Criminal Minds being watched by one of my friends (I won't name names) :)

And, we even ended the night with gourmet cupcakes and s'mores made in an official s'mores roaster.  And no one was eaten by a bear or murdered in their tent, so it was a success!

And hey, the last time I went camping was in my friend Christy's backyard this summer and we let the kids sleep outside while we sat inside on the couch, ate ice cream, watched movies, looked at high school yearbooks and slept in comfort...so who am I to talk about "camping"!