Gin and Juiceboxes » A domestic cocktail

One of the most exciting things for us about moving to California was the proximity to the mountains. When Donovan and I lived in Arizona, we spent a lot of weekends camping up on the Mogollon Rim near Payson. Due to lack of primitive camping near us in San Antonio and having two kids under the age of three, we never made it out camping in our two and a half years in Texas.

We spent this past week getting Gracie and Neva excited about camping. So excited, in fact, that both of them had trouble sleeping the night before we left for Big Bear. After I put them to bed for the night, Gracie would creep into our room and ask, “Is it time to go yet?” And I’d tell her that we would have to wait until morning – and then ten minutes later, we’d repeat the same conversation.

We headed up to Big Bear early Saturday morning. It took us almost two hours to get there with a quick stop at a Ranger station where the girls were given bracelets, balloons, and stickers by the elderly rangers. Admittedly, I had some fears that the girls might be bored – so I packed some books and a small tupperware container with little figurines but they had no trouble keeping themselves entertained.

Donovan and I promised ourselves that we were going to let the kids just “be kids” all weekend. The dirt stressed us out a bit…mostly because we didn’t pack towels and so we couldn’t really shower the girls. It was hard for me to relax about it (I’ve been in the suburbs too long) but we managed to let them get pretty dirty. We then hosed them off with the well water and dried them with some extra clothes we had packed. Multiple times (it was super dry and dusty up there).

We camped with our friends Casey and Amber – and their friend Brett – and we spent Saturday driving down dirt roads with our Land Rover and his Jeep. Eventually we discovered a creek crossing. We’re at about 8000 ft elevation – I’m telling you, this creek had to be about 50 degrees! Brrrrrrr!

In the evening, after we grilled a pork tenderloin and some zucchini, and made S’mores, we took an evening hike to a ranger talk about rattlesnakes. The talk was not super kid friendly – but Smokey the Bear made a brief appearance. Just long enough to frighten the girls.

By the time we made it back to camp and got them settled into our (rather small) tent, it was almost nine o’clock and they were so exhausted that they fell right asleep. We didn’t hear a peep (from them anyway – we heard coyotes in the middle of the night) until morning.

Pretty successful overnight trip. It’s built our confidence for doing something longer and maybe slighter father away from home! If you’d like to see more photos from our trip, they’re all on Instagram.