Camping!

Last weekend we had our third annual camping trip with friends at New Brighton Beach in Santa Cruz. Camping at the beach is the best!

For the second year in a row, the dads organized a treasure hunt for the kiddos. The first year they found a map in a bottle that led them to a treasure box. This year, the kids each found a piece of the puzzle map above over a 24 hour period. It was very cool to see them discuss, hypothesize and figure it out on their own. A box of treasure, or pirate booty as they sometimes call it, was ultimately found.
In terms of parental effort, it was a very mellow couple of days. All we basically had to do was feed/sunscreen/hydrate.

The first couple of days my camera was out of reach, so these are mostly last day shots. (Miss P did change her clothes throughout the trip).
There was an ultra-cool fort that someone had left. Our friend's brother joined us for one of the days and played the role of 'manny.' He dug out and improved the fort and entertained the kids all day.



I brought books to read, but mostly we chatted, ATE, and played games. I was crazy over a peg game called 'Leave only One.' Paddle ball and a bit of soccer happened as well. Ahhh.....summer!