Our First Family Camping Trip

So, here it is. Our first camping trip with young children. :-) We decided last minute to go on this trip to Mammoth Lakes and it proved to be quite an adventure. Which is a good thing, since this is supposed to be our year of adventure. I have decided to copy what the Lauterbachs do and adopt a new theme each year for our lives. This year is the year of the cheese for them. Adventure sounded a little more exciting for us for now!

Anyways, we started off driving 7hrs to get there. We picked our campsite and realized rather quickly that this wasn't quite the spot we were looking for. We could hear all the traffic from a nearby road. And there was a motorcycle convention going on, which meant loud noise! And there were lots of ants. So, after 2 nights, we moved up to Lake George, a quiet and serene spot. After getting back to the campsite from dinner the first night there, we were told by neighboring campers that we missed the excitement. Apparently, as some guys were hanging out at there camp, a bear decided to walk right up and steal a bag of their pretzels. Soon after we got back, sure enough, that bear was still around, walking down by the lake. A strange sight when usually you think of a bear as a potentially dangerous thing. Well, the next night, he tried to strike again, but this time in our campsite. I heard him trying to get into our food box. And I was fully prepared to jump on top of Elena, since she had a cup of milk in our tent that I couldn't get away from her. Thankfully, he didn't come after that! He only left his foot prints around.

The girls got to do lots of firsts. A boat ride, a ride in a gondala to the top of a mountain, playing in a lake, going on a bear hunt with mommy, fishing with daddy, and their favorite...a horseback ride. Daniel got to do some great mountain biking. And I got to sit and read a bunch:)

We didn't stay the planned 6 nights, but we made it 4 nights. Oh, I forgot to mention that our 3rd day there we heard that a road we needed to use to get home had been shut down due to a fire. So it was another thing in the back of our minds, wondering when we'd be able to get home. Thankfully, it was open when we needed it. Did I mention that the showers that I was told were there at the campsites, weren' there? Yea, so we found some we had to pay to use on the 4th day. Talk about us being dirty!

All in all, it was a bonding experience! It was great to be away from email and phones (mostly) and just enjoy being together.
Here's a handful of pictures from our trip.