Family Camping Fun

Well, I guess I broke my blogging streak as I couldn't blog from the beach. The family camping trip was lots of fun! We planned to stay for one night but had so much food that we ended up staying for two instead. I wasn't mentally prepared for two nights but the second night proved to be even more fun than the first. My initial plan was to get to the beach by 11am on Friday but I got there at around 4:30pm instead because
there was so much more preparation than I expected! The night before I cut the veggies and fruits. The next day I remembered that I need to salt and butter the corn, get the CRV packed and ready to go, butter the peppers, and cut the oranges. It was a lot. Next time, I won't imagine that I can make it to the beach so early!

When I got there, Brandon was just about to bathe the kids. Vince and Shane were still playing on the beach and Donelle took Charlie for a walk. Nyles had already left for a workout and Tiara for work. Nik and Everett came right around 7:30pm, just before Nyles got back from town. Tiara came in at 9:30pm. She was able to get off of work early. That night, the boys went to sleep early, before Tiara got back. So did Euliana. I brought games and movies but we ended up talking all night, til about 3:30pm. Euli woke up around 2:30 and that's when her mom went into the tent to put her back to sleep.

That first night, everyone got about 3-5 hours of sleep. Nik and Ev had to leave by 2:30 the next day but not before we had some fun snorkeling around the reefs. No shark sightings and not many fish but it was fun anyway. We took Uncle Guy's surf board out with us. Not a good idea. It got in the way more than helped us. After a while in the ocean, all the girls went to Ululani's for shave ice! Yummmm! I got the Sunset something with the snowcap: Mango, Guava and Passion Fruit. Sooo ono! Not too sweet and not tangy. We also brought back plenty shave ice for the boys. Aunty Sherrie was with us too while Uncle Guy stayed back at the beach. After Nik and Ev and Uncle Guy and Aunty Sherrie left, my parents and Corey came out for dinner along with Aunty Joy and Uncle Alan.

My family only stayed for a little while and went back home. Aunty Joy guys stayed 'til about 10:30 - 11? Tiara, Aunty Joy, the boys and myself went crabbing. That was lots of fun! Vince (with the sharp eyes) spotted all the little crabs while Shane (the brave) caught them. Aunty Joy and Tiara dug the holes to catch the bigger crabs. I held the flashlight. Hehe! We caught three big crabs in all and a bunch on little ones. We put them all in buckets, the small ones separate from the big ones so they wouldn't get eaten. While we were watching the small ones, Shane started poking one and got pinched. He started crying, more out of shock than pain, I think. While he was crying, he motioned for us to put the small crab, that pinched him, in the bucket with the bigger crabs as punishment. The surprise that he would come up with such an idea struck us all as hilarious! We eventually let all the crabs go free in the ocean. Most scurried back to shore. While we were there at the shoreline, we looked for small fish to catch and we caught 2. I also spotted some baby jellyfish and we caught those as well and put them all in a bucket. The boys were mesmerized by the jellyfish and after they went to sleep we released them, along with the fishies.

That last night we all went to sleep around 11 or so and I had to get up early the next morning for church. Donelle woke me up at 6am. The girls packed up camp and I left at about 7:10. I got home, showered and headed downtown to pick up my friend. I got to church a little late that day. Service had already started but everything was okay. Service was awesome and while my friend stayed to help out with 3rd service, I took my parent's car for a wash and gas. After third service, I dropped my friend off at her place, came home, unloaded the CRV, ate lunch and crashed! I slept until 8:00 Monday morning.