Last weekend at Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, was a bit like this.  My hubby, my daughter and I decided on a quick camping escape. It was the first time putting up our new tent, and the first test of my sleeping bag.  The tent went well.  We put the rainfly on backwards at first, but that only took us a few minutes to correct.  The little one even helped with the whole process.  That night we had a blast going out with friends who live nearby.

We got back to our campsite just as it was getting dark.  We crawled into our tent and despite the neighbors being loud (it was still early so we understood) got our daughter to sleep pretty quickly.  All was well, until about 1am when it started to get really cold.  From 1am to 6am I tossed and turned.  It felt very odd, but I discovered I still got 2g service on my phone, so I laid in my sleeping bag freezing, checking Facebook and email.  Very odd to me to be connected while outdoors.  My phone told me it was 39 outside.  I was probably better off not knowing this.  I looked over and my family was sound asleep.

Before morning, I decided my sleeping bag was going back to REI, and my Chacos, that were bruising my feet.  At 6am, I stole hubby’s sleeping bag for 10 minutes and warmed up!  By 7am we found coffee and, despite my lack of sleep, I was excited for the day.  We drove over to Harper’s Ferry park, and left the car about a mile from where we were headed.  I tossed our 4 year old on my back in my Ergo, and enjoyed the walk.

A few minutes later I discovered my hiking boots were breaking.  After some thought, I realized they are 15 years old and have seen many miles.  About 1/4 mile later, the sole pretty much fell off.  Still we walked around (barefoot for a bit for me) and enjoyed a fun outdoor lunch.  Back at camp, I was thrilled to see the camp store sold flip flops.  We went swimming, roasted marshmallows, hotdogs, and played Go Fish.

We forgot half the stuff we meant to bring, and I had a complete gear failure, but we still had an awesome weekend!

In Oregon, we lived an hour from the coast.  Any time we were free and it was semi-nice out we’d head out to the beach.  It was rare to catch a warm day on the Oregon coast.  We’d often leave a 90 degree day in Beaverton, get out of the car at Seaside, and have to put on our fleece sweatshirts and pants.  It was so beautiful that it didn’t matter.  We’d visit Haystack

Rock in Cannon Beach, or play on the swings in Seaside, or just walk for miles.

There was one year, where we had a couple warm trips in May, very early in the season.  Normally, the trips were all of us as a family, but a few times the little one and I went out just us.  This one warm day, she was at the fearless age of two, and just wanted to charge into the ocean.  I had to keep our towels set way back, so I’d have enough distance to catch her if she started to take off.  Thankfully, Seaside is a very wide beach.

It’s odd to me, living so far from the beach now, in the DC suburbs.  In Seattle, we were far from the ocean but still had Puget Sound beaches to hold us over.  I’ve managed a couple beach trips to NJ though already, and look forward to checking out Virginia Beach and Ocean City!

I photographed this family this morning, while they ran around and played in a beautiful local park together. It was great fun and I think we got lots of great moments captured. While I’m preparing the images for the couple’s private gallery, I’m posting this sneak peak.