Our First "Adult" Camping Trip

Branden and I have been camping together a few times, and I've been camping with groups of friends before, but this was the first time we had a group going that WE were in charge of planning. It really made me feel like an adult. We no longer had our parents to plan the meals and buy all the food!

Preparation began a month in advance with the meal planning and logistics of trying to figure out when everyone would be heading to the campsite. Branden and I also had to figure out how we were going to hit everything into my Honda Accord. Since we were able to switch cars in Sacramento to my mom's Tahoe, Branden came up with the brilliant plan to bring a few of our camping bins to Sacramento a few weeks early so we wouldn't have to worry. Even then, my car was jam packed on Thursday morning, and Branden and Tomas had an uncomfortable 2 hour car ride.

The night before we left, I prepared an amazing 4th of July firecracker cake as well as some 4th of July themed Jello shots (which were delicious by the way). I'll write the recipes in another post. Here are some pictures of the end products.

 I bought the wrong size dixie cups which is why they look so empty!

On Thursday morning, while Branden was in class, Tomas and I got the car ready!

Once Branden was back from class, we were off and ready to head to Sacramento to switch cars and then head up to Donner Lake!

When we made it to Donner Lake we unpacked the car and set up our tents and decorations! We got so lucky because the entire trip there was nobody at the campsite next to us.

Most of the group arrived on Thursday afternoon and Tyler and Julie arrived around 1am on Thursday night/Friday morning.

 Branden and I with our nerdy but amazingly useful headlamps

Most of the group pulled an all nighter on Thursday night (I was not one of them) and so Friday morning I was left alone to enjoy tehe wilderness and do some reading.

Once everyone woke up, we cooked up some required 4th of July hot dogs and brats and then hung out at the campsite all day.

We made some amazing spaghetti and meatballs for dinner and ate the cake I made along with some homemade ice cream! My mom bought us this ice cream ball for Christmas and we figured it was the perfect time to use it. Almost everyone had a turn shaking the ball.

 

While we were making our ice cream, Julie found a little ducking right behind our tent. The little guy wouldn't stop following her. We kept the duck around until the next morning when the park rangers came to try and find it's mother. They told us later they were unable to find it's mother but would take it to a refuge where the duck would grow to an adult and be released.

At night we walked to Donner Lake to watch the fireworks. It was a great show that lasted 20 minutes with an awesome grand finale. Sorry for the blurry pics here.

We had tons of fun hanging out around the campfire every night.

 We made banana boats one night and s'mores another night.

On Saturday morning we had some of the best breakfast burritos (compliments of Branden) and then headed to the lake for some fun in the water.

After the lake we came back to camp and hung out for the rest of the evening.

 Brenda's dart landed on the handle of the ax that was on the tree.

We had such an amazing time with great friends and can't wait to do it again soon!

A Weekend of Fun and Friends

We finally had visitors this weekend! After traveling to visit other people for the past few months, it was nice to have friends come visit us! Katie and Jessica, two of my very good childhood friends, took a trip to Alameda, along with Jessica's husband, Nolan, and their son, Gavin.

Katie came to visit on Friday night and we made a last minute decision to go to the Giants game. Unfortunately the Giants are on a slump (although that meant ticket prices were cheap) but we still had a great time just hanging out and enjoying the beautiful views of the bay. We even went to enjoy some post game drinks across the street before we headed back to Alameda.

Jessica, Nolan, and Gavin came early on Saturday and we were able to spend the whole morning together with Katie before she had to leave. We have a nice park about a mile away from our apartment so we enjoyed a leisurely stroll near the beach and to the park. Gavin was able to get all of his energy out and took a nice long nap after the park!

 

 Katie has to leave after we went to the park :-(, but after Gavin took his nap, the rest of us decided to go to the beach. The weather was perfect! We soaked up the sun, watched Gavin play with his beloved dump truck, Branden and Nolan enjoyed throwing a football around, and we even got in the water!

 This is probably the coolest photo I've ever taken

Saturday night we were able to relax and cook dinner. We watched some tv, played some board games, and enjoyed the nice cool evening.

On Sunday we had originally been planning to go to the city but decided against it to avoid the crazy crowds! Instead we went to Fairy Land. Fairy Land is just like Fairytale Town (for all you Sacramento Natives) but was opened in 1950. Disney even took some ideas from Fairy Land when he was developing his park. It was really nice and Gavin had tons of fun.

We had such a fun weekend hanging out with some of our closest friends and we can't wait until they come back to visit! Don't wait too long, friends :-).

Stay tuned next week for my blog re-capping this coming 4th of July weekend! We are so excited to be going camping at Donner Lake!