Camping Adventures

I haven't been doing a very good job of writing consistently on my little blog here.  We've had so much going on and my days are so full that when I do get some down time I just want to mindlessly cruise Facebook or read.  Currently, I'm trying to fight off an annoying little virus that is making the rounds through our household.  Grace had it the least, for which I am very thankful.  Aaron has had it the longest simply b/c he doesn't get enough rest.  And I get it the "worst" b/c I can't cough on my own or blow my own nose.  And that's just gross.
Last week Grace had 6 immunizations at one time.  If I had to do it over, I never would have done this.  She has been a mess.  So so so fussy and whiny and screamy- totally not her personality.  She is napping terribly which is no fun for anybody.  I'm not positive this is due to the shots, but it's the only thing I can point to.  Anyway, I'm really hoping this wears off soon b/c it's getting old and it's hard to see her so sad.

So.....Last weekend we went camping at Crystal Cove State Park in Newport Beach.  It was amazing.  Our campsite was on a bluff overlooking the ocean.  We have camped in so many places in the last 10 years, but this was the most beautiful.  It was between 65-75 degrees w/ a great coastal breeze and sunny.  The only disappointing thing was not being able to get on the actual beach.  My wheelchair won't go through sand that deep.  But there were some great accessible trails through a wilderness area that we are looking forward to exploring later.  Grace did pretty well in spite of her fussiness.  I don't think our camping neighbors were too thrilled to have us next to them, but we just smiled and waved. :)

Many of you have asked how we camp.  Well, we camp in a tent..."The GigaTent"... it has a 10x10 floor with a center height of just over 7 feet.  Aaron can stand straight up in nearly the whole tent. It has a front and rear entrance w/ two giant D-shaped doors.  I can drive into the tent in my wheelchair.  There is a threshold in the doorway, so we let it slack just a little and we lay down a towel to smooth it out and my chair can cross over w/out ripping the tent w/ my wheels.  I sleep on the floor using a 3" Thermarest mattress and my 0-degree sleeping bag.  (I get cold :) at night).  We transfer me from my chair to my bed using our lift.  Our lift is awesome.  It's battery operated and is collapsible so it's easy to transport in our van.  The lift will lower me all the way to the floor.  We maneuver the mattress under the lift and Aaron positions me after he moves the wheelchair out of the way.  He locks the wheelchair in the van overnight. Aaron sleeps next to me on his own mattress and Grace has a tiny mini-tent (called a PeaPod) that she sleeps in in the corner of our tent.  This summer when Santina is with us she will have her own tent.  Of course Aaron does all the cooking and set-up and tear-down.  It IS a big job, but he enjoys it.  Especially the cooking part.  We can't believe that we never tried camping before this.  It's really quite easy, all things considered.  The hardest part is keeping Grace quiet all night!  I think we always thought we would need all this special adaptive equipment.  That stuff is available but it's VERY expensive.  Overpriced, really.  But we did a lot of research and were able to just get normal stuff and make it work for us.  It takes us a long time to do everything, mostly b/c Aaron has to do everything by himself.  I always feel like people would get annoyed camping w/ us b/c we are much "slower" than a normal family.  So if you're a person who likes to DO everything possible while camping, don't come with us. :)  We take it easy and just try to enjoy being outdoors.  Camping at the beach was great b/c we had an amazing view the whole time and didn't feel like we were missing out on 'activities'.  Anyway, we LOVE it!   We are camping in Yellowstone and Oregon in July; Yosemite in August; and just reserved another weekend at Crystal Cove in September.

I'm thinking about having Santina videotape our campsite and our procedure of camping this summer in Yellowstone.  I want to put it on YouTube or something so other disabled people can see how easy it really is.  I think people sometimes feel like they have to give up stuff like camping when they are disabled.  But really you just have to be creative. :)

Ok...signing off now.  Thanks for reading about our adventures!