San Clemente...

This weekend we visited Curt, Brenna, & Brooklyn at their vacation spot in San Clemente. They have their trailer set up down there and invited us to spend a couple of days with them. We were so happy that it worked out in our schedule and we headed down on Friday after school for our first tent camping experience with the kiddos. It was a gentle breaking in for our new tent and the 3 of us new campers- remember, John is an Eagle Scout so a camping pro. ;) We did pretty well sleeping in the tent, even though it was pretty cold. I did learn that Luke is quite a tosser when he sleeps so that kept me up a lot trying to make sure he was covered. We mostly lived out of the back of John's truck and our big cooler but we were right next to Curt & Brenna's trailer and, thankfully, they were generous enough to share their appliances, plumbing, and such with us. We pooled resources and had some very nice meals, enjoyed a beautiful day at the beach (how blessed are we to get to do that in October!), played games (get 6 dice and google "Farkle"- you'll love it), and spent some good quality time together. Thanks, Vander Molens!

Luke had a GREAT time being outdoorsy and seemed to attract dirt like a magnet...

Sitting down for a yummy dinner at the campsite...