Labor Day in the Redwoods

While I realize that Labor Day isn't technically the end of summer, it sure feels a bit like the last hurrah before the weather cools down, school starts (a first for us this year), and projects around the house take over. We were able to spend the long weekend camping in the Redwoods with several other families from our church. It was pretty perfect.

The Redwoods are breathtaking. If you've never been, you must try to get there at some point. We camped at Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. The campground was great, lots of private spots and clean bathrooms - when camping, you can't get much better than that. And the trees are amazing, it is hard to really grasp just how big they are until you see them in person.

The kids loved every minute of it. Audrey spent most of the weekend trying to keep up with the big kids on her bike. I'm pretty sure she logged several miles by simply going around the loop in the campground over and over.

Audrey fulfilled her sisterly duties and introduced Owen to hot chocolate. He whole heartedly approved. 

Owen is always happiest outside, so he was right in his element. He managed to get dirty from the moment we arrived and stayed that way until we left and couldn't have been happier (well, other than at 3am on the first night, but that's a different story).

This is the face I get when I say, "smile Owen". Charming, isn't it? 

On Saturday we made our way over to the coast, just south of Smith River. One of the families in our church owns a home there and was nice enough to open it up to our group to use for the day. Despite being born in California Audrey truly earned her Oregonian status by jumping right into the water and playing for quite awhile. She never batted an eye at the fact that the water was FREEZING. I couldn't even stand to keep my feet in it.

It was a great weekend and such a nice way to wrap up the unscheduled days of summer. Now we are diving head first into several projects around the house and Audrey starts school on Friday (eek!).