the rules of camping

 this past weekend we did a little long-weekend camping at the beach with my family and logged many hours in the sun.  the weather was beautiful, sunny with a light cool breeze.

 by the time we set up camp on the first day it was already late afternoon so we let the kids play by the water and set the rules- you can go in the water, but don't get your clothes wet.  i think that it is physically impossible for kids to stay dry near any source of water.  the sun was setting and the air was cooling as we headed back up the wooden stairs with a group of happy soaked kids.  hey, we were camping, and when we are camping the rules bend quite a bit...

 here are a few of our rules:
 there are no naps...so there are occasionally a few more tears.

 there are almost no limits with the sweets...shave ice, s'mores, pie, cupcakes, cinnamon rolls, hot chocolate, cheese cake and muffins.  i'm not kidding...not all in one sitting of course.

 there are very, very late nights by the fire...meaning (no bed time).

bed time is when you fall asleep.

and sometimes you just sleep in what you were wearing when you fell asleep.

so the rules got bent just a little, and you can tell by these smiling faces that they did not mind one bit.

looking at my pictures i feel like i missed out on taking pictures of the other half of our group and what we did most of the time...playing at the beach.  i didn't take my camera to the beach the rest of the days because it was just a little too much with chairs, bags, umbrella, sand toys, surf boards, wet suits, boogie boards and snacks...

we spent a lot of time playing in the water, catching sand crabs, building castles, digging holes, playing smash ball, snacking, sitting for 2 minutes and getting up to do it all again.

i LOVE camping and bending the rules!!!!