Sand Dunes Camping Trip

Be sure to see the Picasa Web Album named Sand Dunes for all of the pics...

We just got back from a long weekend camping trip. We headed south-southwest past Pueblo to the Sand Dunes National Park - about a 4 hour drive. We left Friday morning around 7:30am. The night before we had the softball team over for a BBQ and they all left around 9 so we put Avi to bed and spent the next hour or so cleaning up from the party and packing for our trip.

Avi and Cabo did really well for such a long car ride. We had to make a few potty stops but they were worth it! We made it to the park around noon and our neighbors Steve and Kristin were already setting up their campsite so we pulled in and started setting up our pop-up. Soon after Brandon had the pop-up set-up a site opened up a few sites down so Brandon and Joe rolled our camper down the street to our own site. We finished setting up camp and ate some lunch and then packed up to head down to the dunes.

We parked in the parking lot and lugged our chairs and snacks to the water. We found a great little spot to set-up our chairs for the remainder of the day and the kids had no problem hitting the water. As you can see in the pictures the water varied from 1 inch deep to about 10 inches deep and there was a sort of wake that would come through every now and then that provided a rush of water. We spent the afternoon at the water and headed back to camp around 5.

Steve and Kristin provided dinner for the group of us and then we had a campfire. Everyone was pretty much beat from the traveling, sun and fun so we hit the hay around 8:30. Avi crashed out right away and Brandon and Cabo snuggled in to their sleeping area. I could not fall asleep at all and was awake all night. It didn't help that a huge wind storm rolled through for about 5 hours. It ended around 4 which is when I started to drift off to sleep only to be awakened by Avi saying "mommy, i'm wet" so we did the middle of the night pants change and worried about the mess in the morning. Avi didn't want to sleep in her sleeping bag which happened to be dry because she'd wriggled out of it during the night so I had her fall back asleep in my bag (which is a mummy bag and not meant for 2 people no matter how big they are) and then I put her back to her spot and got roughly 2 hours of sleep before we had to wake up to make breakfast for the group.

Everyone dragged over to our spot around 8:15 for the breakfast we'd cooked up - eggs, sausages, bacon, fruit, etc. After breakfast we cleaned up a bit and then again packed up for the water. We spent all day at the water Saturday - we got down there around 10 and left around 4. Steve and Kristin had brought their gazebo which was really nice to have some shade if you wanted it. Joe had his "horse-balls" game which kept us busy too. The kids spent the entire day in the water running from downstream to upstream chasing the water. They had so much fun.

The dunes were cool to look at but the sand got so hot so early that we didn't do any hiking up them at all. The water was the biggest hit for all of us - it stayed nice and cool around there with the breezes and clouds that floated through.

Saturday night we had burgers and hot dogs and then another campfire. We headed back to our camper around 9 and kept Avi busy for another hour or so wear her out (she had taken an 1.5 hour nap when we left the water so had lots of energy). We lit up a glow stick and were throwing it around the camper and hiding it to keep her busy.

No wind last night so we all slept fairly well. Avi woke up around 7:15 so we started packing up camp and headed out around 8:30. We got home at noon and spent the next hour unpacking and doing laundry and are now relaxing inside - we've had enough sun for the weekend.

I'm pretty sure I've turned the corner toward feeling good all/most of the time as I really didn't feel ill while we were there but it sure was difficult getting comfortable to sleep. I'm 15 weeks pregnant today and we go to the doctors on Tuesday to hear the heartbeat! We can't wait!

Next weekend is our annual Deer Creek Court Block Party. We need to have it early this year because of vacations and baby due dates. It should be a blast!