Camping with the Cromars in Fort Bragg

 We were thrilled to meet up with our friends from law school, the Cromars.  They live about 8 hours south of us, but we met them about 4 hours northwest of here, in Fort Bragg.  We were planning to do some camping this summer, but we hadn't decided on a place, so it was perfect to go camping and catch up with good friends at the same time!

The first night (Thursday night), we didn't have any neighbors, so the kids had plenty of room to spread out.  Mike made fun of me for packing the van with so much stuff, but having 6 tennis rackets and all sorts of balls really came in handy for keeping the kids entertained.

The rackets were a favorite.  All the grown-ups took turns pitching to the line-up.

It seems like the last few times we have been camping we have just stayed one night per place and everything was rushed.  Meals were just easy and thrown together.  It was nice to be relaxed on this trip.  I was also eager to have a more exciting menu.  This was also during June, which we designated as a "no-spend" month, so we only shopped in our cupboards.

The first night I made apple cobbler in the dutch oven for dessert.  If only we would have had ice cream, it would have been perfect.  I used dehydrated apple slices from our food storage.  They re-hydrated nicely.  The big divot in the center is from checking to see if it was done.

The second night, I made zucchini brownies in the dutch oven.  The frosting I made almost compensated for the lack of ice cream.  Coating the dutch oven with sturdy foil made the dutch oven easy to clean (since we were using it two nights in a row) and also allowed me to take the brownies out of the dutch oven so I could frost them easily.

The kids totally approved!

I didn't take pictures of our other meals, but I'll list them so I can remember.

Dinner 1-- mac 'n' cheese for the kids, sausage and zucchini stir fry over rice
Dinner 2-- chocolate chip pancakes, scrambled eggs (originally planned for a breakfast, but since it takes some preparation, we loved it for dinner... I brought something else to make for dinner, but I don't remember what it was)

Breakfast 1-- zucchini bread brought from home, leftover sausage and zucchini stir fry, leftover cobbler
Breakfast 2-- oatmeal with dried fruit

Lunches-- mostly PBJs and dehydrated pears as we were out and about

Of course there were roasted marshmallows (Catherine, Zana and Elira, here)

And s'mores every night!

After the kids were in bed (or in sleeping bag, rather), the grown-ups had time to chat and catch up.

During the day, we explored the beaches.  Somehow in my awesome packing, I forgot to grab a jacket for Caleb (but grabbed 2 for Eliza).  It was chilly, though, so Caleb didn't mind a few gathers and ruffles.

 They loved being chased by the tide.  As usual, everyone ended up pretty wet (including me)!

 Josh loved playing in the sand (though here it was more like gravel).  He couldn't help but throw it though.

We hunted around for interesting creatures in the tide pools.

This beach had lots of gross (flies all over) seaweed all over it, but we still had fun exploring!

Catherine gave me a heads-up that her kids would have their bikes, so we squeezed ours in too.  Riding around the campground was one of the highlights for our kids.  It was the perfect parade route :)

On Saturday, before we headed home, we explored the pier.  We thought this carved bench would be a nice spot to get all the kids together for a picture, but with all the kids on there, you can't even see the bench, but you have a nice view of the ugly white board in the back.  Oh well, the kids are cute.

Catherine and me, both in purple, as if we planned it :)

One more beach before heading home.  It's nice to have friends around to snap a picture, even if not everyone will look at the camera at the same time.

Thanks for inviting us, Cromars!  We would love to make it a tradition :)