It's Not Your Fault It's Windy

Alternate titles: The Camping Trip that was Not Meant to Be ... or... Now That's My Kind of Camping!

The reason I say it was not meant to be is that this was already our second attempt to take the boys camping at Henry Coe State Park. It is a gorgeous park in Morgan Hill, CA and James and I have been backpacking there a couple of times. We had hoped to catch some nice warm weather and enjoy a weekend of good old family car camping. We originally reserved a campsite a few weeks ago, but when rain showed up on the forecast, we cancelled and rescheduled for Mother's Day weekend. The trip wasn't specifically for Mother's Day, but I was on board to spend my Mother's Day on the sunny, warm camping trip I was imagining. 

Henry is psyched!

So we get there, get out of the car... it's a lot cooler than I was expecting. But it was late afternoon, so I'm thinking, OK it will be nice tomorrow, it's fine. Little wardrobe change... jackets on... let's set up camp. 

We like to bring dinner already cooked for our first night of camping, so we made chili the night before and James warmed it up on the camp stove. (No campfires allowed! :( Terrible drought here.) And as we're setting up camp and cooking we quickly find that it's not just cool, it's getting cold, and worse, it is really windy. 

Lovely campsite, gorgeous views of the mountains all around. But I was starting to feel miserable in the wind and I also realized that I didn't pack warm enough clothes for myself or the boys to deal with this wind chill. James had checked the forecast for Morgan Hill, but didn't think to check the forecast for the higher elevation point where our campsite was. Oops.

I may or may not have acted like kind of a brat about the wind... (I'm sure my parents have no idea what I'm talking about.) But I pulled myself together and tried to apologize to James for my grumpiness. I hugged him and I said "I'm sorry I'm taking it out on you. It's not your fault it's windy." And he said "Thank you. That means a lot to me." And then we laughed at how ridiculous that all sounded.

We stuck it out overnight, and in our sleeping bags we were all warm enough to sleep. But we could hear the wind howling like crazy and I kept imagining all our dishes and gear being blown away! In the morning the wind showed no signs of stopping, so we decided to bail because it just wasn't going to be as much fun as we had hoped.

I talked James into turning our weekend into kind of a "staycation" by going to a hotel for the night instead of just going home. Someplace with a pool where we could play with the babies... where we could order in Mother's Day breakfast and neither of us would have to cook or clean up... and even though it was a crazy idea we went for it.

James booked a room at Hayes Mansion in San Jose and we made a Target run to pick up swimsuits and dinner outfits for James and myself.

We spent the afternoon at the pool and then had dinner in the outdoor lounge. It was chilly, but there were heaters and the wind was much calmer since we were in the valley and not on the mountain. We laughed about sitting around the firepit because it was like getting the campfire experience that we wouldn't have been able to have at our campsite!

The next day was Mother's Day. We breakfasted at the hotel, then spent the rest of the morning at the pool again. When we finally had to check out, I didn't want to go home yet because I didn't want the weekend to be over. So we went to a park to hang out until dinner time and had dinner at a pizza place to satisfy my craving for Chicago style deep dish. Yum!

Of course the pictures make it look perfect, and in reality there were more ups and downs besides the wind. Henry's reflux was particularly bad and he was vomiting more than usual. Presumably this was because I had tried to back off his Prevacid dose - I just don't want to give him more than he needs, but clearly he still needs it twice a day. So that made for several unpleasant clean-ups. Also Calvin had a really tough time sharing his water toys at the pool. But looking back, I remember it as a really great weekend overall. Henry's vomiting and Calvin's toddler-ness... those things are just a part of our lives for the moment. Can't let them ruin the happy memories. The wind wasn't James' fault. The vomiting isn't Henry's fault. Gotta shake it off and focus on the good stuff.

  

James and I like to pride ourselves on being able to figure things out on the go. (Good thing, because we are definitely "building the plane in the air" when it comes to parenting!) We like to be laid back about changing plans when we need to or want to. It was really satisfying to feel like we could still be spontaneous even with our two little nuggets in tow! You gotta do some crazy, fun things as a family every once in a while! #gowiththeflow #changeofplans #buildtheplaneintheair #onlyamazingthingsin2014