Boo!

Clara & Ella

We had a great time trick or treating this year.  Unfortunately Jordan had to work, but I invited family and friends over for chili, cornbread and trick or treating!  We had a fun large group of darling little kiddos and made a loop around the neighborhood.  Clara had to hold her friend Brynley's hand the whole time which was adorable.  And Coleton toddled along in his little pumpkin costume, dragging his candy bag behind him.  He would not let you pick him up or hold his hand, which made it a little challenging for him to keep up with the pace of the group.  I went cheap this year with Halloween costumes, last year's fit so they wore them again!  They didn't mind and I was happy to save the money and get good use out of them!

Paso Picacho Camping!

We had a family camping trip a couple of weekends ago.  We camped at Paso Picacho which is about a mile past Lake Cuyamaca.  The first night, after setting up camp we started a bonfire to keep warm, it got pretty chilly at night!

Clara building a house for the ants ;)

One of my favorite parts of camping is sitting by the fire at night and cooking dinner.

The next morning, after a very eventful night with 3 little ones sleeping together in the tent trailer, we went fishing at Lake Cuyamaca.  We rented a little row boat and spent the morning unsuccessfully trying to catch a fish.  The kids had a blast just casting and reeling back in, and it was fun just being out on the water.  Unfortunately we are not experienced fishermen ;)

After fishing got old, they started feeding the geese!

After some naps we went on an afternoon hike, there were many great hikes right at our campsite, and we picked a 1.5 mile loop.  On our hike we saw 6 deer!  At one point it felt like they were completely surrounding us!  The terrain and landscape of our mountains are very different after the Cedar Creek fire burned through them, it is haunting but still beautiful...

She was hiding to try to surprise everyone!

Unfortunately Alissa & Jon didn't make it through the second eventful night, and headed home for some much needed sleep around 2:00 am.  We missed them the next morning as we went on another hike a couple miles down the road in Green Valley Campground.  It was an area called Green Valley Falls, and there was a beautiful little stream that collected in various pools with small waterfalls.  It was a great place to explore, and after tiring out the kids we headed back for naps and packing up our campsite. 

It was a great weekend, this was the first time that we ran our heater in the tent trailer, and it kept us nice a toasty.  It is good to know we can camp through the winter.  We will definitely be heading back to this campground, and it is so nice that it is only an hour away!