Sand Dunes

Last Thursday Jon decided that he wanted to go camping.  So, Monday morning we packed up all our stuff and headed down to the sand dunes for a nice, warm camping experience.  Little did we know how truly hot it would be.

We got to the campsite around 2:30 and wanted to go exploring.  We tried hiking the sand hills in our flip-flops, but the sand was so hot it was making the kids cry.  Luckily, Jon had anticipated this and so brought everyone's socks and shoes.  We explored around the campsite for a while, and then we ventured out to sand mountain.  Luckily we were almost the only people at the sand dunes, so I didn't have to worry about the kids getting hit by ATV's or anything.  Jon took the older kids and hiked almost to the top of the sand hill (that's 700 feet).  Those hills were super hard to climb, but the kids did a great job.  As it started getting steeper, Jon had to piggy back Kale and Hallie -- hence, they almost made it to the top.  

Sky and I sat in the nice cool car and took pictures.

Once dinner was over it was much cooler, and that's when the real fun began.  The kids played on the sand hills by our campsite for hours, and then we played games and sang songs until it was dark.  Of course everyone (and everything) was covered with sand, so we just brushed ourselves off the best we could and climbed into the tent.  Desert weather is crazy.  Everyone started out laying on top of their sleeping bags because it was so hot, but by the time morning came it was so freezing that Kale, Hallie, and I were all cuddled up and sharing 3 blankets.

After breakfast the kids noticed tons of little tracks in the sand.  They would follow the tracks and find what was making them at the end of the trail (mostly beetles).

We spent the morning sand jumping and following bugs and cleaning up.  Then, before it got to hot (we learned our lesson the day before), we packed up and headed home.

Some might feel that one night of camping is hardly worth the effort, but we love doing it this way.  Especially when you're camping in sand -- no way could I handle more than one day of being that disgustingly sandy, or another day of constantly trying to wipe sand out of kids eyes with hands that are already covered in sand.

Yes, one day was exactly right for our camping trip, and we absolutely loved it.  Great idea Jon!