APRIL 26 CELEBRATIONS

It is that time of year again when we celebrate two of our three favorite kiddos being born!! This year we asked the kids if they wanted to have a big birthday party or a family camping trip. Much to our pleasure, they wanted to go camping. We packed up and headed south about 30 minutes to Caspers. We loved it. Gramma Nancy and Papa Steve came with us and we made some really great memories. Here are a few snap shots. This was after we got home and celebrated with pizza, cake, presents, and a lingering smell of campfire.
Riley, Molly, and Joy gave Jackson a headlamp. It matches Papa Steve's!!

This was at an amazing park on the Caspers site. The kids loved it.

Here are the birthday babes. . . Olivia is now 7 and Jackson turned 5!!

This was the view on one of our walks through the park. Do you see the mountain lion behind the bushes?? Just kidding. We didn't see any.

This was the park. So great. SO fun.

Here was just a shot of our little picnic table, fire pit, and the beautiful trees that were all around us. Seriously, this was so fun!

Gramma and Papa stayed in the two man tent (right) and the Baker 5 stayed in the six man. I think they could have squeezed in. I don't know why they wanted their own. :)

Jackson loved getting to play with fire. :) Look how handsome he is.

Olivia and Gramma Nancy were cuddling under Olivia's blanket. I don't think Gramma Nancy ever did get warm enough . . .

Here is little Lucy eating some yummy yogurt for breakfast. She was quite a mess that morning with not enough sleep.

We were roasting marshmallows around the campfire after we finished our hot dogs. The kids LOVED the marshmallows!!

Olivia caught a ride with Papa Steve on our hike. It was about a mile hike and Jackson's favorite part of the trip. The marshmallows were a close second.

Part of the hike was very dry and desert-esque and some of it looked like this. . .a little something out of Robin Hood. Beauiful trees.

An attempt at a cute picture with Gramma and Papa and the three.

Lucy wanted to be carried the WHOLE hike. And only by mom. This picture was taken as we were heading into the fire swamp. :) We didn't see any R O U S's.

Three cuties!!

We also got to go whale watching out of Dana Point. We didn't see any whales but HUNDREDS of dolphins swam with the boat. It was amazing. Jackson took this picture of beautiful Livi.

I wish I could have captured how many there were and how they were swimming with us and jumping! It was spectacular!

Lucy found her own place to look at the dolphins. Everyone thought this was so funny!

Gramma and Lucy.

Here were the three getting ready to go to sleep in their super warm sleeping bags. I think the first night two of them complained of being too warm!

This was our very first night. There was this very cool educational "show" put on by the park at their Nature Center. They talked about all of the different kinds of animals the kids might see, they sang songs with animal puppets, and even got to touch a Rosie Boa. SO MUCH FUN!

It was such a great time and we can't wait to go on our next camping adventure. Wanna come with us??