Apparently, we're that sort of family now ...

People always used to ask us, "Do you camp?" And we'd always say, "No. We're the sort of people that should like camping, we just don't."

That, my friends, is no longer true. Let me tell you about the genesis of the Kline family as camping "experts." (Translation: expert=survivor).

Last August, we borrowed a bunch of equipment and went camping with about 14 million preschoolers from HFP. This wasn't exactly roughing it - the trip involved a camping blender and a lot of margaritas - but we watched people use camp stoves and saw how they packed their gear and picked up a whole bunch of neat ideas. We also learned that you will NOT freeze to death if you sleep in a tent. Valuable info.

Back on Mother's Day, we scaled down in size and went to Beverly Beach with our friends Jack, Stephanie, Mia, and Miles. We bought a bunch of our own equipment instead of borrowing it, but we still weren't roughing it. We stayed in yurts (highly recommend the yurt, btw, jsut for the sheer joy of saying "yurt" over and over). The cmping blender made another appearance, but we didn't have nearly so many maragaritas. We did, of course, pick up more tips and tricks. Stephanie showed Christie how to make a little fire starter out of wax, woodchips, and egg cartons. Christie confirmed that she does, in fact, know how to start a fire. Ed watched. Ed fears fire.

Last weekend, we went solo. We went to Oswald West State Park. We slept in our own sleeping bags in our own tent. Christie started our own fire with her own firestarters. We ate camp food. We cooked on a cookstove and Wrigley ate about 14 million marshmallows. Now this, this was roughing it: no camping blender. We didn't even bring beer. The beach was amazing - it had good surf to watch (surfers, too), rocks to climb on, rocks to skip on a little river, tide pools to explore, a waterfall, and plenty of driftwood. A blast was had by all.

Christie has some pictures posted at flickr (I hear her site it "to die for"), if you're interested.

And I know you're only supposed to take out what you bring with you, but I found some nice poems out in the woods. They wanted to come home with me, so I let them. Maybe I'll type 'em up tomorrow.

Kudos to me

Wow! My folks always tell me they like my photos of W, but that is to be expected. Apparently other folks do as well! Picture This. The contest was on movement (blur) in photos and how it doesn't necessarily ruin a shot. Here is the competition along with Tracey's insightful comments on technique.

Yeah me!

Apparently I didn't have the volume on Mary Poppins book on tape loud enough!

Faces

Candyland

Life has been good since Wrigley discovered how to play Candyland by herself.

Contemplations

Mommy, did you know that my pinkie toe can stretch farther away from the rest of my toes than the others can? None can go farther than the pinkie toe.

I just love warm spring days, because all the flowers make me so romantic.

Did you know, Mommy, that sandals are the king of shoes?

Oh, the possibilities

A clean new notebook is so hopeful. What to fill it with? New knowledge? Love letters? Quoteable quotes? Deep thoughts?

Wrigley was given a notebook. She's pretty excited by it. She's getting a little help with the actual writing part, but the journal entries are all hers. Here's the third:

Once Marble was sitting on the arm of the couch, and then she decided to jump from the arm of the couch to the project table. And then from there she decided to grab her rainbow and jumped back to the arm of the couch. And then play with her rainbow.

I gave the cat cat treats for Christmas and the rainbow for Christmas, too. And I put the present in front of her hoping that she would tear it open with her claws. But no, she didn't tear it open with her claws. She merowed and wanted me to help open it for her.

The remains of a handstand on the couch