(This is why I avoided blogging for so long. I do good and then lose my stamina to keep it up. Sorry this is so late and so disjointed.)

(Disclaimer: Please excuse the pictures, appears my camera was on some weird setting and I didn't realize it for a few days)

This is part one of our Refugio trip this year. I made the posts into 3 parts as I figured it would be overwhelmingly big to be all together, and really it was a vacation in 3 parts, so it works. Our (Me, Danielle, Jeannette, Brenden and Brenley) first part was with Christine and Thomas and kids. We were on the side of the campground I've never stayed on before. It really wasn't bad, we were close to the bathroom and showers so that was good. Just that the campsite was a bit small, but the kindness of strangers. The family next to us saw our predicament and graciously let us use part of their site for Thomas to park his car.

The picture below shows our site. Jeannette's small trailer in the back was on the very edge that way and Thomas' van in the foreground was on the neighbor's site. The log is actually the site boundry. The tent in the corner was Larissa's, the red one next to it was Christine's, and mine was back behind Jeannette's trailer. It was a cozy site! :)

(Jeannette Rivers)

(Sheila Watts, Kalea Hulihan, Brenley Rivers)

Looks like we are getting ready for S'mores... yumm... best part of camping I think is the anticipation of roasting marshmellows and chocolate!

(Sheila Watts, Danielle Barrios)

There's Grandma and Dani on a very pretty morning.

(Brenden Rivers, Danielle Barrios)

I love trying to capture the wave right as it breaks on a rock. My thrill of the vacation! You will probably see more than one picture of that.

(Brenley Rivers, Danielle Barrios, Brenden Rivers, Kalea and Isaiah Hulihan)

Group shot. Jeannette was using my camera and likes to get the kids to pose. She did pretty good considering Isaiah wanted to play and not get his picture taken!

(Larissa and Shay Nelson)

This is a common sight on this beach. TAR FOOT CHECK. It wasn't too bad this year. Only a couple of days seemed really high in tar in the water and on the sand.

Love how the pelicans fly. I have many shots of them through the years.

(Isaiah Hulihan)

See this weather?!? It was like this everyday of our trip until the last day (in Part 3). Unbelievably good beach weather this year. Made for such a fun trip.

This is part of the clean-up crew. One day Jeannette and I stayed behind to get the site picked up before going to the beach and they came out to help. There was about 5 of them. We put up with them a bit until one thought my toe was to nibble on! Then I became a bit more animated and they scurried off until we left.

(Brenley, Brenden Rivers, Isaiah Hulihan)

Larissa kindly provided a luxury in the way of Big Sticks for the kids. Boy, did they enjoy them and so did we adults. The kids could make as big of a mess as they liked as water was just steps away to clean up!

Danielle found a new friend to play this game with, the name of which totally escapes me for the moment.

Brenely is such an interesting 4 year old. Not many beg to sleep, but when this little girl gets tired that's all she does and she can sleep anywhere. One of the last days we were at the beach she fell asleep straight on the sand. It was a bit cold that day with wind and the sand was the warmest place to be. I did go and cover her with a towel to keep from burning though. But here she is in one of her typical ways of sleeping on the beach.

(Isaiah Hulihan, Danielle Barrios)

There is a playgound and this is the kids having fun. Appears to be a slide pileup in the picture below!

(Kalea Hulihan, Brenden Rivers, Isaiah Hulihan, Danielle Barrios)

(Kalea Hulihan, Brenley Rivers, Danielle Barrios)

Part 1 is sadly over, but we are on our way to our Carpinteria Interlude (see next post). This was a very fun start to our vacation!