YM Campout - San Onofre

Every time Jim does a campout with the Young Men, he says sort of seriously that Ever and I should come.  I always blow him off, of course, thinking that's ridiculous.  But this time he was totally serious.  He planned a campout for Thursday, August 1 to Saturday, August 3 and didn't have any other leaders to go with him, so I was the second adult.  One of his counselors got us into the military campground at San Onofre.  Most people there were in RVs, but we pitched tents in the dirt.  It was us, the bishop's two boys (Carter and Grant Shirley), their little friend Andrew, and, for part of the time, Raphe Valdez and Tyler Meppen. 

We got there Thursday afternoon and set up camp.  Carter is a get-'er-done leader.  He took charge of setting up the gigantic new shade structure Jim bought for the occasion. 

Dolly had fun "cooking":

 

She also enjoyed a lot of time in the car by herself throughout the trip, getting into whatever she could reach:

Dolly recently started learning how to pose.  A couple weeks before this campout, I said, "Smile for Tutu," and she clapped her hand to her face and gave me this:

Jim tried the same technique another day and got this:

When I tried it during her car festivities on the campout, however, she did weird things like this:

I guess she just wanted the paparazzo to go away:

The boys spent a little time in the freezing water that afternoon.  Jim got in with a boogie board for a minute.  Then he went to get fire supplies (he'd been told we couldn't have fires, but we discovered a fire pit when we arrived), and the boys, Ever, and I played on the nearby playground.  Ever could ride one of the slides by herself and had a grand time.  The boys were really cute with her.  Andrew kept giving her a "ride" up the stairs to the top of the slide, and he followed her around and spotted her while she played.  Jim was gone an incredibly long time.  He returned with not only fire and s'more stuff but also a tiny wetsuit for Dolly.  He had decided to make a detour to the Rip Curl outlet because it was just right there, he said, and he wanted to be able to take our little water baby into the ocean while we were there. 

That night the main event, besides s'mores, was pouring hand sanitizer on hands and lighting them on fire.  Grant also spent some time that night standing by the adjacent campsite so he could watch the cartoon they were projecting onto a big screen by their RV (fancy camping people).  So cute that he's 13 and still unabashedly into Disney movies.

 

We put Dolly in her own little tent that night, just on the pad from the bottom of her pack n' play (without the pack n' play) with a blanket or two.  She went down without too much of a fuss, but she was up for three hours, between 11:30 P.M. and 2:30 A.M.  First I went into her tent and tried to get her to go back to sleep, but she seemed totally awake and wouldn't stop talking.  Then I took her into our tent, where she continued talking and also writhed all around.  She finally calmed down enough that I thought she could go back to sleep, so I put her back down in her tent, and she slept until about 8:00 A.M. 

 

Friday morning, some of Jim's surf buddies came down, and they and Tyler (the only young man who surfs) went out early.  (San Onofre is home to the famous surf area known as Trestles.  I told Jim this was a YM campout and not a surf trip with his friends, but he didn't see why it couldn't be both.)  They got back just after everybody else got up, so it worked out fine.  We had pancakes for breakfast and then did a "hike" (really a 1.4-mile round-trip walk along a rocky beach) to a sea cave in nearby Dana Point, after driving all over the place trying to find the starting point.  It's a protected tide pool area, and we were warned not to touch anything.  The boys were undeterred. 

Raphe, Carter (inexplicably sporting jeans and a flannel), and I



Raphe, Carter, Grant, and Andrew

This was the opening to the cave.  There was water at the bottom, so we had to push against both sides with hands and feet and maneuver through:

From inside the cave:

There was a smaller cave right around the corner from this one.  Tyler scaled over to it and came back holding a little crab, which he excitedly showed Ever by putting it right in front of our faces.  Ever immediately reached out and grabbed the crab, which immediately pinched her finger and wouldn't let go.  I froze and did absolutely nothing.  I have no experience with crabs and wasn't sure how to free her finger.  Tyler eventually pried the crab off.  Dolly cried for a really long time.  Poor thing.  I'm the worst mother ever in crisis. 

 

 

 

The boys had a good time, and I was really glad we went.  Spending an entire day at the beach, from breakfast to nighttime, would've been incredibly boring I think, especially since the water was so cold.

 

Jim wanted to take the boys out for lunch after the cave extravaganza.  I said taco shop.  Tyler suggested Pedro's Tacos; said it's awesome!  So we went there, and it was awful.  I had not-good chicken tacos.  Multiple people in our group ordered bean and cheese burritos that were bereft of any cheese.  Tyler complained and was told that's how they make them.  Total bust.  We stopped at a little market to get milk for Dolly on our way back, and Jim got me a delicious ice cream sandwich that sort of made up for the lunch, though.

 

Dolly passed out in the car on the way back to the campground.  Jim and the boys got wetsuits on and took the surfboards down to the beach.  I left the car on and air conditioning running and let Dolly sleep and sleep.

 

 

That evening favored us with a beautiful sunset.

 

Jim, Carter, Andrew, Grant


 



 

Friday night was more fire and s'mores and flaming hands. 

Carter lit one hand on fire and tried to put it out with the other hand.  The hand sanitizer got on his other hand, so he had both hands on fire for a good while as he waved them around trying to get the fire to go out.  It was pretty impressive.  I believe the two blue flaming areas in this photo are Carter's hands:

 

 

I asked the Shirley boys if their mom would let them play with fire like that, and Carter said, "Absolutely ... not."  I felt cool.  I was tempted to try this hand sanitizer trick but never did. 

 

Dolly woke up in the night again Friday night.  When I went into her tent, she put her arms up to me and said, "Done!"  I took her immediately into our tent, and she settled down before too long and slept in Jim's arms.  Next time we'll make her a little bed in our tent and see if that goes better.  We may also have better luck if the campground isn't close to a freeway and right next to train tracks.  The freight trains came by at all hours and were incredibly loud and long. 

 

Saturday morning we ate more pancakes, broke camp, and came home.  It was a nice vacation for me.  The boys and Jim did everything - the cooking, the cleaning, the setting up, and the taking down.  I just hung out.  I think there may be more YM campouts in my future.