InstaFriday 7.27.12 - Camping and Chaos

It's InstaFriday time with Janette over at Life Rearranged.

 

Little moments create big memories, and this is one of the ways we remember our weeks around these parts.I'm playing catch-up this week because we were camping in Tahoe last week (BIG memories, people!), and we returned to chaos back home this week. Anyway, here's our week(s) in iPhone photos.

As a "non-camper" the part that most excited me about camping was figuring out the meals. Stu and I went to Berkeley Bowl the Sunday before we left and got groceries for the 6 of us for 5 days. We went a little overboard, but man our meals were delicious. Can I just say that I love Berkeley Bowl? I mean, I'm obsessed. Sure, it's slightly overwhelming, and you run into your share of, um, Berkeley characters, but there's just something about the fact that you can find everything under the sun at that store. And if you can't? It probably doesn't exist. That, and their peanut butter. Yum.

We left for Tahoe on Wednesday. We planned to leave before Cora's first nap, but it ended up taking us 4 hours to get packed up and out of the house. Yes, four. Painful. But, we eventually got on the road, and Cora slept most of the way. And then we had to stop for a nursing break along the river. Life is rough.

 

Oh, phone! Gimme!

We got to Camp and both sets of Grandparents had already set up camp, which was so very lovely. We got down to the hanging out business right away.

Grandpa and Cora in her little beach chair

 Cora went to town on some mango slices, per usual. That girl and her mango.

She ended up needing a bath afterward. Nana brought along this blow up bath tub that totally saved us in more than one way. She loved spending time in her pool and it saved us from having to bathe her in a cooler.

The first day was super chilly, so we went into town and found this gem. Clowns for your garden, anyone? Creepy.

We spent most of our days hanging around the picnic table or on the shores of Lake Tahoe, just spending time together. It was nice to not have anywhere to be or any agenda to uphold, and just be. Cora did so well sleeping while camping. She loved all the attention from both sets of grandparents and loved all of the smells and sounds of the pine forest. Really, we couldn't have asked for a better camping baby.

I got to read and put my feet up during nap time, something that I rarely get to go at home because there's always something to be done or laundry to be folded.

And this was our week. Campsite, beach, campsite, ice cream, beach. Love.

Note my freshly pedicured toes. Because everyone gets a pre-camping pedicure, right?!

Cora playing in the "lake", lake water in the tub warmed up by the sand.

She really is such a water baby.

 Yum. Ice Cream. 

Lazy mornings and evenings around the campsite, playing games, and hanging out.

Ticket to ride art

And waking up to this face every morning.

We created a new dessert: Banaileys. Roasted banana with some baileys. It was hit and miss, but eventually the winning combination was banana, baileys, and chocolate, and leaving the banana in it's peel in foil on the fire until it was just mushy. It was pretty good!

Self portrait excitement!

 

And a last little meet up at InNOut in El Dorado Hills before we went on our separate ways.

 

It was such a wonderful week, and hopefully a tradition we can carry on into the years!

Unfortunately, we came home to a bit of a disaster. Our cat sitters extraordinaire, Andrea and Dave, informed us on our last day that the hose running to our washer/dryer sprung a leak. They (thankfully) caught it, turned off the water, and graciously wiped up the water. That wasn't really the end of it though. A few hours later our building manager called us and asked if our pipes had been leaking because our downstairs neighbors came home to a leaky roof and puddles in their dining room. Ruh-Roh. They ended up having to take out the plaster on portions of their ceiling and walls and will replace them in about a week. We're on the hook for the cost of those repairs, and there go our laundry privileges.

Bye bye laundry.

Add that to a cat who decided that our only rug was a very lovely litter box, a baby who is working very hard at crawling, limited space, and a failed offer on a house? Chaos. Absolute chaos.

Life certainly is overwhelming us at the moment, but I'm thankful for our time spent with family, that Dave and Andrea caught the leak before too long had passed, and that they left us delicious surprises in our fridge.

What wonderful friends and family we have to make our lives a bit brighter in the midst of chaos.

Though, if you think of us, can you send up a little prayer that life becomes a bit more manageable? That would be lovely.

Happy Friday!