Pine Mountain

We went camping this weekend in a new place, Pine Mountain. It was so pretty and unexpected, and cold. We'd planned on camping much closer to home but that campsite was full so we kept driving into the Los Padres National Forest and came across this little gem. We got the last site out of the six in the campground. Penny had her heart so set on real camping that I don't know how we would have recovered if we didn't find a place to camp. It was a miracle, seriously. I mean, who just heads into the mountains to camp without a reservation on Memorial Day weekend?

Our original destination, Wheeler Gorge for you locals, is along a little creek and has bathrooms and running water throughout the campground. And, it's not quite up in the mountains so it's still low enough to be warm. We'd brought the girls swim suits and were going to splash and cool off in the stream. Pine Mountain, where we ended up, is at 7,000 feet. Fortunately we'd brought some water with us. We unfortunately didn't bring enough blankets and coats so we were all pretty cold at night.

Despite the cold, Penny had the time of her life. She kept singing songs about "real" camping. Stephan and the girls have camped plenty of times in the tent in the backyard but this was so much better than she could have imagined. She didn't mind freezing. We went to the store last night after we got back home and Penny told everyone she saw who would listen that she went camping in the mountains.

Penny in front of the hill next to our site. She called it Prayer Mountain. I have no idea why.

We hiked Prayer Mountain.

The girls on top of some Prayer Mountain rocks. (That's right, Ginger's wearing her favorite pink leggings with the pink and purple owl socks.) 

I'd forgotten how annoying crawly babies are to take camping. He spent quite a bit of time just hanging out in the tent, which he didn't mind if his sisters were in there to entertain him. 

If he'd been ignored for too long, he'd crawl up to the tent door and chew on the zipper and growl until someone noticed him. He's so funny. 

 There's just something about a big empty tent that kids LOVE! They all loved wrestling with Daddy and jumping around on the sleeping bags and throwing pillows.

Cutey Jake.

There was so much firewood around this place. Stephan's approaching camp with his wood collection while Ginger warms up by the fire.

Poor Ginger had a fever and this horrible cold all weekend but she's still so sweet.

She's cooking her hotdog "on" the fire. In case you can't tell in the photo, her hotdog isn't even in the fire ring.

We finally cooked her hotdog for her. And she ate it like a weirdo.

I know it doesn't look that cold but it was and Jake doesn't have any really warm clothes. He was a giant ice cube when we finally left but he didn't even seem to mind freezing. The Elmo toilet seat in the background was for the girls. They haven't quite mastered peeing in the bushes and they were petrified of the pit toilet.