San Simeon Camping 2012

Ellie and Mama joined Uncle Joe, Auntie Kim and the Cousins for a fun and frigid-ish 5 days in San Simeon from July 5th-9th. We loved the cooler temps and being so close to the beach! The kids loved the fire and making smore's around it at night, and Ellie did remarkably well sleeping in the tent, even though the whole site was on a pretty steep pitch. In the pics of the camp, you can just tell that the tents are lower on the hill than the food tent and the fire pit. It was crazy! But it also had a great view. See the teeny bit of dark blue between the trees in the middle? Ocean! It shows up bigger in person. 

The kids loved the 3 mile hike we took them on during day three, and it was the highlight of the trip for all of us. We found blackberries, avoided poison oak, and explored the gorgeous countryside of San Simeon. Ellie also loved going to see the Elephant Seal Rookery Beach on our last day. To newcomers they may look like a bunch of dead seals, but they are actually just snoozing, and molting. The winter time is when the beach is full of activity--mating season! It's a beach I remember visiting about 15 years ago, so it was fun to take Ellie there and to see her as fascinated with them as I was. :) 

Camping without Lip Gloss! NO. WAY. 

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Little Pouty Face.

Tree Climbing Attempt No. 1.

Beginning the Hike!

No more pictures, Mama!! NOOOO!

The mist is just starting to burn away.

Snack and Water break at.......1/4 mile! 

This girl has swagger.

Uncle Joe is giving Mama's shoulders a break.....

Adding Hailey! Super Uncle! 

I love her little arms here, she was just walking along like that.......

And she just kept going, she didn't even pause once! Just barreled on through, calm as you please. Hilarious. 

Tree climbing attempt number 2.....

And she did it!

Beach Day.

Elephant Seals! 

Joe takes such awesome pictures...this is one from the hike day....

This is back at camp where Ellie turned Hudson on to the Joys of Lip Gloss, much to Joe's chagrin....

Mam and Ellie on the Hike. 

Three little heads about to start the hike.

Mesmerized by Smore's and the fire!

This little Imp has a mouth full of rocks right now! 

Beautiful Ellie girl. 

Two and a Half Exactly!!!

Ellie is two and a half! To mark this milestone, we did a little photo shoot.  Her legs are getting SO long, and her hair is so cute, I decided we needed some new pics. Getting a natural, sweet smile out of her was hard though! This first picture is her "Mama is telling me to smile" smile, and the very last one of these outside pictures is a genuine, sweet smile. All I had to do was talk about her Tiger tooting on her. Silly girl! She is obsessed with "yip loss" which is why you will see her "yips" pressed together in some pictures. She is making sure the lip gloss is still there! 

The other fun thing we did  on this day was to make a peach cobbler to share with Papa, who had to be gone on Father's Day. Ellie had a blast trying to "cut" up peaches with her little plastic knife, and mixing the batter. Her favorite part though, was tasting her "Take!" with Papa when he got home from work. Definitely a sweet day. :)