Camping at the Kern River

In honor of the always glamorous Liliana Rose and Gianna Catherine, I hereby declare our Kern River camping trip "THE KERN RIVER GLAM-PING TRIP."

(Before I say more about our amazing trip, I want to address my new all time favorite photo of my sassy daughter. The picture below was not posed. In fact, I had to race from the picnic table, to the car and back to capture this moment. Everyone else in our group was eating, drinking, cooking, or playing cards and we looked over to see that Liliana had taken all of her clothes off --NOT a surprise for the child who LOVES to be nakey--and had wrapped a pink boa around her neck and was dancing all by herself. What can I say? I just love her!)

Back to the trip...The drive was longer than any of us anticipated, the weather was at least 10 degrees hotter than we had hoped for due to a heat wave, and the bees at breakfast really freaked Gianna and I out...BUUUTTT...I would definitely say that our '1st-annual-family-tent-camping-trip' was a HIT and I can't wait to do it again!

The kids got filthy, laughed a ton, and got to enjoy pure nature for a couple days without any electronic interruptions. We ate great food and drank good wine (thanks Anthony families), I saw 4 shooting stars in a perfectly star-filled sky, we shared lots of laughs, and had the best time watching the girls live it up. There were no lights and no campers (and therefore no generator noises) to disrupt nature at its finest. It was beautiful and just what I remembered about camping as a child. I have to admit that I slept between the girls with one ear open and my hand near the bear alarm (pot and pan to bang together to scare them) at all times, but sleeping in a tent is the best! Waking up in the morning and inhaling the fresh smell of the outdoors immediately (before you open a window or door) is somehow comforting. We borrowed our gear this round (thanks Aunt Sal) because we didn't know how we would like it with a little one, but we are pretty much sold. We are making this a tradition , but next time we will probably head up to Northern California where it isn't so hot!!

Their play-tarp was filled with dress up supplies, clip in hair, tu-tus, dresses, heels, make-up, princesses, their brand new American girl dolls and accessories, Disney barbies, etc. Who said that camping = "roughing it"? Their is not a single thing that is rough about these two girls... except perhaps their filthy little feet because it was hard to climb rocks in heels and they refused to wear anything else most of the time.

"Make new friends, but keep the old!" I can't count how many camping trips I have been on with my Dad and Stevie B. I think they started me even younger than Lila. It was special to do it again with the next generation. This was the first of many more tent camping trips to come. I think that you can see by the looks on their faces that they are still having just as much fun:
Gianna and Liliana playing Liliana's favorite game..."STAGE". They put on an amazing song and dance show that was directed and choreographed by Gianna:
Gianna is an expert at striking a pose (I seriously didn't even have to ask her to work it, she just does) and Liliana is an eager pupil:
World's Best Auntie "B", or as Lila refers to her, "My 'B'." She was the girls model and muse all weekend. They made her over, told her what/how to play, and loved her forever for it.
Water gun fights are fun for the whole family:
These two are basically "bee-sessed" with each other:
River Lizards sunning on a rock:
Making "bouillabaisse" (she is always cooking either bouillabaisse, goulash, or ratatouille) at the river during the day with Grandpa and at night at the campsite with 'G'. Lila is quite the chef.

Stevie B., Adam, Colin, B and I went rafting on Saturday morning. The rapids were class 4 and it was a really great time. Nobody in our raft got tossed out, but some of the rapids were pretty big. Our raft team was the best on the river!