Camping

We are soooooo outdoorsy.

Well, if camping for one night 45 minutes from home at a "full service" campground is considered outdoorsy, then yes, we are soooooo outdoorsy.

Jeff and I grew up camping and have always loved it.  Now that the girls are getting a little older, we want to share this adventure with them.

(Side story... when Claire was first born and needed me a lot, Jeff made a point to show Avery special attention as often as he could.  One of his daddy/daughter ideas was camping in a tent with her in our backyard.  They had a blast!  After this experience, we were anxious to do some real camping and a few weeks ago was finally the time.)

We all had a ton of fun!  Claire was a little tricky the first day we were there due to her intense curiosity about everything (read: dirt, bushes, fire, fellow campers, etc) and her love for running (read: Claire caught a shoe edge while running and slammed her head onto pavement a few hours into our adventure).  She was loving it all, but keeping her safe (and close by) proved to be a little hard at first.  Thankfully, Avery was awesome and helped us with her.

Going into the trip, I was most anxious about how Claire would sleep at night.  Would we put her in the pack n play?  Would she sleep through the night?  How would she fall asleep with all the campground noises still going strong at 7:00 p.m.?  Well, my little one rocked it!  She fell asleep with ease in her own sleeping bag nestled between mine and Avery's just after 7:00 p.m. and didn't wake up until 6:30 a.m. the next morning.  We all felt like a million bucks with her sleeping success!

We looked forward to camping many more times with friends and family!

Toddlers get MESSY while camping.  I let go of keeping my kids clean the minute we stepped foot at our campsite.

Avery was excited to practice sleeping. 

We did a lot of exploring around the campgrounds.

This was taken shortly after Claire's forehead met pavement.

Avery was the epitome of a Mommy's Helper!

Handing out hugs and all.

This was taken after our "real" hike.  Both girls rocked it.  Avery hiked the entire thing herself! (A part of me never knew if this day would ever come!)

So. Much. Stuff.

FPT

Clean as a whistle.

Sister Love

I feel pretty darn lucky.  The love between Avery and Claire is so sweet, so honest, so genuine and so strong.

My heart is filled with joy daily watching how tender and patient Avery is with Claire.  She is protective of her, watches out for her, plays with her and loves her so much.  As for Claire, well, her favorite playmate is Avery.  She loves to follow her around and try to play on her level.  She loves to make her laugh and do silly things to get her attention.

Granted, as with all relationships, theirs is not perfect.  There are times when Avery would rather do something by herself or do something that is too big for Claire.  There are times when they bicker over something or Claire gets upset when she wants something Avery has.  Even with all that, Jeff and I talk often about how great they are together and how much they play and love each other.  Their relationship is more in tune and intimate than we expected and there is nothing I want more in life than to nourish their relationship, so that they continue to be so close.

I try to sneak pictures and videos of these two when I can without them noticing, a few of these sneak attacks are below.  I feel like a spy and they're my cute little targets!

Avery had my phone to watch videos and thought taking pictures of Claire was more fun.  Claire thought so, too.

Giggling on the floor together, happy as clams.

I have no idea.  Again..the floor?!

Claire's forever protector.  

These next two videos pull at my heart strings.  The first video was taken four years ago at a park overlooking the water in Del Mar.  The second video was taken a few months ago at the same park. Funny how life works.

FPT

Sisterly love...most of the time.