Camping at the Beach

We went camping at the beach with our family last week.   It was so fun to be together with the Kleis family (Ben's sister's family who lives in Italy but it out in CA for June) and Maddie's Uncle Cody and Nano and Papa.   It was so nice to have so much time with one another and for us to get to know our nephews and niece better.   We did some "comfortable camping"  with our nice big tent and huge blow up mattress.  I was surprised at all the new camping gear Ben had been accumulating over the past few months for this trip.  He was just so excited to do this!

Some highlights were:

-First day there I was walking to the bathroom and some people at a campsite across the campground asked me, "are you looking for a little boy?"  I said, "no, just looking for the bathroom" then on a second thought I decided to come closer to their site to see who this little boy was.... sure enough, it was my 2 yr old nephew, Luca!  He fit right in with the other blond kids he was playing with and is such a friendly little guy he thought nothing of being at a campsite with compete strangers!

-Ben, Maddie's and my 4am stroll through the campground in attempts to get Madelyn back to sleep.  She had woken up maybe an hour or two before and wanted to poke our faces and crawl all over us rather than sleep nicely between us.  We walked to the ocean and listened to the waves crashing a bit and Maddie fell asleep on the walk back!

-Experiencing my niece and nephew's fascination for flashlights

-Hearing Emma and Sam call us "uncle ben" and "aunt melly"  It is so great that they know who we are and are becoming comfortable with us.

-Watching Nano attempt to teach the kids how to properly cross the street... "look right, look left, look right again" and they thought it was such a fun game!

-and of course, the typical camping experience of campfires, smores, yummy food and just sitting around in our chairs and talking.