camping at carlsbad

When I was little, our family would go camping every summer. We would spend one week camping in Yosemite and 2 more weeks camping at the beach. Man, those are some of my most favorite memories! I love[d] camping! Well, this last week I had the opportunity to go to one of those campsites again and it was great! The group that went camping when I was younger still goes, only now those that were kids back then are now adults with their own families...and that's who I went camping with! Just like old times, except that we're a lot older and life is definitely different now that we're not kids anymore! But it was fun, and it brought back so many great memories!

So after being asked to go camping with everyone it was time to get ready. I searched through the garage to find all my old camping gear. When I found it all, I realized that it was pretty old. I had bought it all when I was a kid...I had saved up all my money and bought my very own tent and sleeping bag back when I was like 10 yrs old! I didn't want to sleep in the tent-trailor with my family anymore (Jenny would grinde her teeth) and so in order to be out on my own I had to save the money to buy it myself. It was great! I always loved being on my own, and guess what... I still do! :) heehee! Anyway, I put up the tent to make sure it was all still in one piece before I took it camping. It was, but it was pretty small. You know when they say its a two man tent, but really only one man could fit in it? Well, that's what this tent was...SMALL! But it would have to work! I packed everything up and headed to the beach!

Setting up my portion of camp was pretty easy. The tent is pint size, and took maybe 10 minutes to get put up. Once everything was all in order, we all headed down to the beach. Man do I love the beach! I love being in the sun, playing in the water, bump'n the volleyball, throwing some frizbee, and just hanging out with great friends! The week was so fun! Everyday was spent down by the water, get'n some color, and enjoying time with each other. There's nothin better!...am I right, or am I right?!!! :)

The only negative thing about Carlsbad are the dreadful stairs...you have to take like A MILLION stairs to get down to the water...and A MILLION stairs back up to the campsites! But, it was good exercise! We all felt the burning in our muscles! haha :)
Ok, so a few embarassing moments for the Jodster happened on this trip! Day 1, I sat down on my beach chair (that's about 15 years old), took out my sandwich and started eating. Half way through my egg salad sandwich,
THUMP!
I FELL THROUGH MY CHAIR!
Geez, if I didn't feel fat before, I sure did after that! hahaha! :) It was embarassing, but pretty funny too! Needless to say, I was chairless for the rest of the day! Check out the rip...geez!Then, Day 2...the end of our time at the beach and we were heading back to camp. We got to the top of the dreadful stairs and what happens? I'm busy in conversation, not paying attention, and step down on the edge of the concrete and rolled my ankle...falling down on all fours! OUCH! It hurt like crazy, but to make it worse...everyone saw it happen! Oh my word, what luck huh? :) I scraped my knees and hand, my ankle was in tons of pain, I was a bit embarrassed, but I walked away laughing. Good times! haha :) Sorry folks, no photos of that one! Too bad, so sad! :)

Anyway, let me just tell you about how great all the girls are that were on this trip! I love them! Not sure how it all got started, but we had this thing going on all week calling each other our BFF's! :) Deanna even made us all our own BFF friendship rings! :) I just love these girls so much and am so blessed to have such wonderful friends in my life! Thank you JESUS! :) Here's my ring...its so me!Deanna making our BFF rings :)
Here are a few pics from the beach...I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed my week camping with great friends! :)

Me and my BFF Thiam :)the beautiful sunsetthe cutest little mermaids! (all my girlfriends kids)Me and sweet lil Faith...we're BFF's too :) She painted me a picture and we displayed it in my tent window :)playing UNO with the kiddoseating at yummy Juanitas! swimmin with Hollycheck out how cute Holly is all decked out for a day at the beach! :)cute little Gideon found his own BFF...and baby lizard! He sure did love that thing and was so sad to say goodbye to it when he let it go.

PHOTOSHOOTS:
My sweet friends, the Cheatwood's, let me stay on their campsite for the week. So when Thiam asked me to take some family photos for them, how could I resist! :) I also took some photos of my friends Josh and Kristy and their family. I totally enjoyed the time shooting them all and was grateful for the experience. Check out their family photos on my photography blog as well as some other beach photos at:
Jody Vasquez Photography