You'll be ok, just go to Big Bear

Dave had last Monday off of work so Sunday afternoon, we packed up half a country worth of stuff and headed up to Big Bear for a little family camping trip.  When we first moved down to Loma Linda six years ago and complained about how ugly it was here and how much we missed the beauty of the NW mountains, people would, without fail, say, "Oh, you'll be ok, just go to Big Bear"!  This became our inside joke for anytime we encountered a difficulty.  We'd say to each other, "It's ok...just go to Big Bear".

For those of you in the NW, Big Bear Lake is completely surrounded by multi million dollar "cabins" and has a town with every modern convenience and convenience food.  It's hardly, what we would consider "escaping" into the great outdoors.  But, it is certainly better than nothing, especially at the end of the month of March in freezing...no, BELOW freezing temperatures.

Getting out of the house with a newly potty training toddler and a 6 month old baby is totally comical.  Dave and I didn't pack anything for ourselves beyond sleeping bags and pads and yet our car was full to the brim with baby gear.  Our camping roots are in backpacking and we pride ourselves on bringing the bare minimum, but somehow little people trump that notion no matter how hard you try to downsize.

From the minute we got there, Jack was in his element.  We brought his scoot bike and he loved riding around our campsite and playing in the dirt even though it was below 40 degrees even in the afternoon sun.  Cade, on the other hand, was such a sad fellow.  Even bundled up, his lower lip stuck out for the entire trip.

After dinner, as bedtime approached we knew we were in trouble.  Cade wasn't having this whole camping thing and we knew as the temperature continued to drop that he would be crying a lot through the night.  My gut told me that we should just pull the plug, pack up and head home.  Dave had the final decision and thought we should stay.  So, at the last minute, we put the seats down in the Prius and threw my sleeping bag and pad in there with Cade's car seat.  Dave and Jack "slept" in the tent.  Somehow, we got both kids down and got a few hours just the two of us to enjoy smores by the fire and star gazing.

We went to bed around 9:30 and were both in for long nights.  This was Jack's first time sleeping in a sleeping bag on an air mattress (he used to be in a pack and play) and he really struggled to stay put.  Dave said he had to get up with him upwards of 8 times throughout the night to wrestle him back into his sleeping bag and get him back to sleep.  In the car, Cade was up every hour and half or so crying at the top of his lungs because he was so cold.  Did I mention that it was 27 degrees?  Note to self: that's too cold for a little baby.  At 4:00 am, I couldn't take the guilt of freezing my baby so I turned on the car's heater full blast and made myself stay awake for 45 minutes so I wouldn't accidentally leave the car on for the rest of the night.  When he woke up for good at 6:30 am, I turned the car on again which was the perfect place to hang out as a family when Dave and Jack woke up a little while later.

Minus freezing our kids, we had such a great trip.  It was quick and fun and left us thirsty for more.  In the morning, we headed into the town of Big Bear and stopped at a wood carving artist shop and also managed to find a parked digger to climb on and explore.

He's died and gone to heaven, digger heaven

Quite possibly the happiest moment of his life