So this week the four little kids and I went to the beach with my sister Elizabeth and my mom. Did I mention we went camping at the beach?!?!? I don’t do camping people, I don’t like camping. I’m more of a luxury kind of girl. But apparently luxury is overrated and boring and really slim on the memory making. But camping is NOT boring and we most definitely made some memories.
My true feelings about camping (and why I never take selfies)
The good: The campground had showers!
The bad: The showers were outside
The ugly: The showers were unheated……COLD!! I am sorry, but you cannot swim in the ocean, dig in the sand and not take a shower. Poor kids they had to take a shower EVERY day!! Yes, some of them screamed through the entire 45 second shower.
The good: My sister has a very nice, large tent
The bad: It rained two of the three nights we were camping
The ugly: The first night it didn’t just rain, it poured ALL.NIGHT.LONG. About 3 A.M. Jeremiah wakes up and says, “Mommy, there’s water splashing on my face.” And sure enough, a small waterfall was falling from the roof of the tent!! I moved him over to a “dry” space and prayed for the storm to stop. When the morning finally arrived we mopped 3-4 inches of water out of our tent!!
The good: The “bat” van! All 10 of us, plus a huge pile of stuff (thanks to the miracle packing of Rob Tromm) fit comfortable in the van for the drive down to the beach!
The bad: Our tent was completely flooded so we decided to sleep in the van
The ugly: Sleeping sideways on the van floor, squished between the wheel and the bottom of the seat, trying to keep my legs from falling into the running board while my head was propped on three wet towels, all the time mindful that my two year old was asleep on the seat 12 inches above me and did I mention she has a tendency to fall out of bed!!
The good: The Park Rangers were amazed that we stuck it out all four days! They thought we were either (and I quote my sister) “completely crazy or completely awesome”.
The bad: During the Tuesday night monsoon, we could see headlight popping on all over the campground as people packed up and left in the middle of a complete downpour. In the morning there were only two tent campers left…..us and another guy who had been camping on and off for over a month.
The ugly: Lighting struck our campground sometime during the never ending thunderstorm on Tuesday night.
The good: The food was SO tasty! I don’t know if cooking and eating outside just makes the food taste better or if we were just very hungry from playing at the beach, or if my sister is just a fabulous cook but the food tasted amazing(it was probably a mix of all three)!
The bad: We had to walk a mile just to get fresh water (ok so a mile might be a little extreme, but honestly, have you ever carried a huge bucket of water without splashing any out?!?!? It felt like a mile.
The ugly: The mosquitos made a meal out of us. These guys don’t play around! They have no trouble biting you THROUGH YOUR CLOTHING! Vicious, vicious horrid things.
The good: We camped at Oregon Inlet, the same campground that my parents first took us camping at, 34 years ago! Yes, that makes me feel old, but hey I only 18 months old. We camped there often and I actually have memories of those later camping adventures as a young girl. So that was pretty awesome taking my kids to the same place.
The good: I was able to spend 4 days at the beach! I so miss the beach in the years we aren’t able to go. It really is my happy place! 
And I think it’s Jeremiah’s happy place too, since that’s what he wrote in the sand.
Cousins playing hot potato while waiting for dinner
The good: Spending time with my sister and my mama and the kids getting to spend time with cousins! Eva and Natalie are becoming such good buddies!! I love that!
The good: Taking the kids to Jockey’s Ridge. Jockey’s Ridge is like a ginormous sandbox. Well, more like a mountain of sand! Honestly, it’s amazing.
The really amazing part is that this huge mountain of sand does not blow away. It moves back and forth, but never leaves this location, which is truly fascinating to me. My favorite part of this little trip was watching the kids jump down the steep side of the sand dune.
The good: being away for a few days. It gives a great perspective on life and the blessing of HOT water at the touch of a faucet!! Oh and a good dry pillow! Sleeping 3 nights on a stack of damp beach towels really makes you appreciate your pillow!!
So the lingering question, will I ever attempt camping at the beach?!!?! NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS! Haha, ok not true! I might think about doing it again next year! Might, being the operative word 🙂
The End
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!!
House of Smooches 
You know we had fun!! 🙂