Camping in Big Basin

2 weeks ago, we went camping in Big Basin with another family we had met during our birthing classes. They have a little girl, Lauren, who is one month older than Zoe. We were a little hesitant going in; what would we do with Zoe, would it be too much, would she nap in the tent in the middle of the day, would it be too hot or too cold, etc. On top of that, none of us were much of campers, so this had ADVENTURE written all over it. The good news, Big Basin is only about 1.5 hour drive.

We loaded up the car Saturday morning and drove to the campsite in the afternoon after Zoe's nap. The minute we got out of the car, Zoe was running down the hills and off getting into anything she shouldn't (which means the whole campsite!). But Lauren and her were having a grand old time and loved to run around inside the tents. Sleeping wasn't so bad, just a little later than normal. The adults even found time to sit around the campfire for a bit and have a visit from the local raccoon boss.

Zoe woke with the birds the next morning, but we solved that quickly with a hike. You can see how that turned out in the pictures. She had a blast the whole day, riding on Mommy or Daddy's back, getting out and running around squealing, playing in the dirt, and sitting in the big girl chairs. She loved the waterfall, but we had to keep a tight hold on her since none of those areas are exactly built for toddlers to peruse. She passed out with little fanfare that night...

Only to wake at 3am ready to p-a-r-t-y. She was giggling and squealing, body slamming her stuffed animals, playing with the sleeping bags, and having a grand old time in what she thought was her play tent. So remember how we said it was only an 1.5 hour drive? Well, at 4:30 we broke down our tent, packed up, and took our little vampire home. Missed our camping sweet spot by 1 night!

All in all though, it was a total blast. We were all exhausted the next several days, but it was well worth it. It just may be awhile before we try again. :)

Diaper Genie

Zoe loves a clean diaper. In fact, she loves them so much, that she will wait until she has a clean diaper to poop. If there is any sort of sogger, no poop. But as soon as we change out that sogger, she goes into her little pooping corner, gets very quiet for a couple minutes, does her business, then chases us for snuggles so she can stink bomb us. The little peanut will only poop when she has a nice fresh diaper...no combos on this menu.

Midwest Visitors

Uncle Tim, Aunt Karen, and Amanda came to visit a couple weeks back. It's been so busy since then that we're just now getting around to posting about their visit. It was a crazy busy visit...but then again, when isn't it crazy when Uncle Tim is involved?

Tuesday they arrived, Wednesday they came up to our place to visit before I went in to work, Thursday everyone went to Happy Hollow, Friday it was the Monterey Bay Aquarium (and more importantly Ghirardelli sundaes), Saturday was the beach, and finally Sunday was brunch at Uncle Mark and Aunt Amy's before they went to the airport. Zoe took a 2.5 hour nap the day after they left and still went to bed early that night.

We all had a great time visiting and Zoe especially loved having Amanda around. They are a really cute age and watching them interact was pretty funny. Amanda was awesome playing with Zoe; giving her hugs and kisses every 5 minutes, bringing her toys to play with, and even sharing Maggie with her! Zoe thought it was great to have a big kid who was obsessed with her to chase around and learn the ropes from.

Kate forgot the camera when they went to Happy Hollow, so they missed out on some cute photo ops. Amanda and Zoe were holding hands while they walked through the park. The aquarium was pretty funny because while we technically went down together, it was more like 3 families who just happened to be at the aquarium at the same time. Each was on a slightly different enough schedule, and moved at a slightly different enough speed that I think we all just ended up waving in passing. So our pictures ended up being of them at the beach playing together. (And can you tell which one is crazy about the ocean?)