Carlsbad Camp-Out

We had a super fun over-nighter up at the Carlsbad State Beach campgrounds. It was so nice to get away without having to go away! Jadon begged if his friend M could come with us. At first I was reluctant to let him bring a friend since it was supposed to be strictly a family thing but Ed and I were so glad we let him. They totally kept each other entertained and all the boys had lots of fun.

When we picked M up to come with us. He brought two game-boys and a portable DVD player with bunches of games and DVDs.

In an effort to be electronics-free on our camp-out, I issued an 'electronic challenge' to the boys. They had to let me hide their game-boys and the DVD player. Jadon and M had fun riding their bikes around the campsite and climbing trees. They were quite dutiful about keeping up the electronic challenge until it got dark and it was time to go into their tent.


Once we first arrived at our campsite we got the tents set up. Uncle Robe let Jadon and M use is small tent so they could have their own tent.

Zac loved helping anytime he could. He kept signing the word 'help' when we put the poles in the tents, hammered the stakes or blew up the air mattresses.

Zac also had fun going for walks and chasing the big boys. He also got a real kick out of all the motor homes and loved petting the dogs of fellow campers. A few times he got scolded for honking the horn while playing in the car.

We roasted turkey dogs for dinner and marshmallows for dessert.


We also drank hot chocolate. If we had played Chubby Bunny, Zac would have won for sure.

He loved helping Eddie start the fire and a few times he quietly went and roasted a marshmallow all on his own with no one looking.

It was cute because once Eddie, Zac and I got into our tent to turn in, Jadon and M kept getting out of their tent. We would see their flashlights moving around outside and it turned out that they were taking "shifts" watching over the campsite to protect us from "skulls and skeletons."

Apparently Eddie told them to tell each other scary stories to get to bed which only spooked them and kept them awake. Eventually they got to bed and got a good nights' sleep.

So Jadon never put his sleeping bag in the car so Eddie was stuck with a fleece blanket on a thermal pad after giving up his sleeping bag to Jadon. It was pretty funny when Eddie, who froze at night, asked Jadon if he was warm enough during the night. To which Jadon replied, "Yeah, in fact I even got so hot I slept on top of my sleeping bag." Jadon wore shorts to bed as well. Go figure.

(Nice boots Scoutmaster Ed.)

The next morning we awoke to the sounds of little boys asking us if they could ride bikes at 6:30am. We got up eventually, made some yummy eggs and broke camp so we could get Jadon and Zac to the Junior Carlsbad race...