Camping at Joshua Tree National Park

 Our first trip with our new "expedition" trailer was a success!  We didn't take Maya this time so we could all hike the trails.  We dropped her off at the kennel and were off to Joshua Tree.

Packing was an adventure in itself.  I knew it would be colder, but my Yuma brain wasn't sure how cold it would feel to us.  Alison had zero pants to pack, so we had to make a last minute trip to Walmart to buy some pants that barely stayed on her tushy...but they were warm so I guess that's what matters.  Eli's only fitting closed toes shoes were his church shoes and he refused to let me buy him tennis shoes, so he hiked in church shoes.  This is what Yuma has done to us; we live in shorts and flip flops year round and don't know how to function in cold.  We are in trouble.  Thank goodness, Laurel mentioned taking hats and fleece blankets with them last time they camped because she saved our lives!  We were cold and also thankful to be cold, if that makes any sense.

Joshua Tree is magical.  At each turn, you had to just stop for a second and let your brain process what it was seeing.  It felt like we were in a whole different world.

We set up camp, started cooking dinner and the boys went exploring.

The kids have been eager to help cook, which made cooking even easier.

We camped at Jumbo Rock and the kids climbed the boulders the entire time.  Colin was fearless...a little too fearless, but he came home with no broken bones.

They pretended this was their dungeon.  

We roasted marshmallows and cuddled up on a picnic blanket to stargaze.  We could see the Milky Way crystal clear and it was amazing!

The kids really make camping easy.  By 8:00 each night, they were exhausted and ready to climb into their warm sleeping bags. They would put themselves to bed and slept like babies. 

Inside our tent:

In the morning, Alison and I did a little exploring ourselves.

Then we all hiked to skull rock.

We explored around skull rock and found some pretty cool places to climb.

Ben climbed up higher than we wanted the kids to go.  If you look closely, you can see me holding the boys sticks they collected that turned into guns.  They would hike all day as long as there are sticks that can be turned into guns :)

Colin said at least a million times, "Daddy, take a picture of this!"  Ben literally had 100's of pictures of Colin from this trip.

After lunch, Ben took the boys on their own little adventure.  He found an area of rocks that they called Mars and I'm pretty sure was the highlight of their trip.

Then, just because we could, we went to the geology tour road.  Only cars with 4 wheel drive can go down it and you can see different rock formations and old mines.  We didn't go too far because some of us are prone to car sickness, but it was still fun.

Then we hiked the hidden valley trail.  We were pretty tired by this point, but it was a short hike so we tried to push through.  

Colin was especially tired from the full day, plus dramamine, but as soon as he found this log to carry as his machine gun, he got the pep back in his step. 

We got back to the campsite in time for an early dinner.  We learned that it's much nicer to eat an early meal and have everything cleaned up and put away before it gets dark.  Plus, once the sun went down, all we wanted to do was stay warm by the fire and look at the stars.

Both dinners, we grilled meat that we had already marinaded, toasted some bread on the grill and then added a simple side.  We could probably make meals even easier, but we all enjoy cooking, so it will probably stay this way.

I loved our campsite.  We had so much space all to ourselves!  This campground only had a bathroom, but Ben set up a water system for us and even had a shower.  The kids and I were too cold to even think about a shower, but Ben used it and it worked well.

We even brought our hammock stand, which beats a camping chair any day.  I mean, who doesn't want to relax like this?

While I cleaned up, Ben took the kids up on the rocks to watch the sunset.

While they were sitting there, this fox started roaming our campsite!

He stayed for awhile, circling our table to see if he could find food.  He was really pretty, but freaked Colin out.

The next morning, we loaded up our campsite and went to the cholla garden.

The kids said this was one of their favorite trips and I would have to agree.  I definitely see us going back to Joshua Tree; it was so peaceful and fun to explore.  My favorite part of the trip was evenings with my girl.  We would lay under the stars and talk or play Uno by lantern light while the boys slept.