Casini Ranch Camping

Tyler's first camping trip! Our community group decided to get away for a weekend at Casini Ranch, a great family-oriented campground right on the banks of the Russian River in Sonoma.



We didn't have the most auspicious beginning.... a 5 hour traffic-filled ride through San Francisco and across the Golden Gate bridge. A rest stop at the Petaluma outlets, however, gave us a second wind and we pulled into Casini Ranch to find that Tom and Amber had already set up camp and started dinner. They let us borrow their two-room tent which was big enough to fit the Nichols and Canadas, with room to spare for a nursing chair for Eunice... Let the camping begin!

When you're camping with 10 kids, you don't have much on your agenda other than watching everyone run around. Highlights of our day included watching Spencer build dirt castles with the girls, towing Spencer and Theo around the campsite in a wagon with buckets on their heads, lots of time playing on the swings and slides of the playground across the street from our campsite, and a trip down to the river bank to play in the river. We also enjoyed a surprise visit from Adam, Rachel, Todd, Chico, and Michelle, who were in the area hiking (we put Adam and Rachel to work in the inflatable kayak, towing the rest of us around the river in our inner tubes as the afternoon fog rolled in). At night we enjoyed a hay ride in the back of a tractor around the campsite, s'mores around the campfire, and a hilarious bedtime routine of brushing teeth in our huge tent.

The one downer of the weekend was Gaby falling into the campfire. She ended up being fine, but definitely gave us a good scare. Spencer still tells the story best: he pantomimes Gaby falling, says that her mommy and daddy were scared, and makes the noises of the fire truck and ambulance that came to make sure everything was OK. Gaby's a tough cookie - burned in a campfire one day, off to a big European adventure a couple days later.

Tyler loved his first camping trip - the fresh air helped him to sleep his first 8 hour stretch in the great outdoors. He's going to be ready to join the Nichols boys (Ryan, Adam, and Spencer) on a backpacking trip out in the Sierras in no time.

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