Easter Weekend Camping

I think we might have come up with a new family tradition: Easter Weekend Camping and the first camping weekend of every year.

We decided to stay close so we chose Bruneau Sand Dunes outside of Mountain Home. It, obviously, has sand dunes and a couple lakes but because it's practically the bottom of a river bed, it's a lot warmer than the mountains. 

We didn't leave until around 3pm on Saturday. We wanted to take our time and not rush.

When we pulled up to the entrance of Bruneau, it was not at all what we were expecting. There were campers everywhere and people all over the place. And the only place to camp is an actual camp ground with rows of designated lots - Not entirely our idea of camping!
We decided to make the best of it regardless. We unloaded the car, opened up the camper and started to make it our temporary home.
Zeplin was more than thrilled to be out of the car and in the camper. I think he loves our little Skamper more than us.

We spent a majority of the late afternoon inside, laughing and being together! It was over 70 degrees outside and my pale skinned son shouldn't be getting a sunburn this early in his life.

Once the sun went down, we made our way down to the small lake with Zeplin.
He practically wanted to jump into the water the moment he saw it. Matt had to hold onto his pants just to keep him accidentally going overboard!
We stayed on the docks for a good 30 minutes which was a half hour too long in the opinion of a mom who thought she'd have a heart attack if her son kept running towards to end of the dock one more time!

We made our way back just before the sun went down. It was such a beautiful warm night.
We roasted hot dogs over the fire, and people watched the swarms of them attempting to make their way up the sand dunes.

All the while, Zeplin, in his new found walking freedom, found excitement in walking around the camper, picking up handfuls and sand and throwing them - something he is ever so good at now days. lol.



Just before going to bed, Zeplin took a nasty spill out of the camper. Nothing was hurt but he was pretty shaken up.  We decided to try and put him to bed but he was too hopped up on happiness that he refused.  Matt tried entertaining him, and I tried singing to him. It wasn't until almost 10:30pm that the little booger decided to go to sleep and it was only with me laying next to him so he could play with my hair.

And then the tornado hit!

Matt and I were both almost asleep when a terrible wind storm picked up and really scared me. It kept Matt and I awake during mot of the night. And just when I was almost asleep, Zeplin would wake up. I would assume that I got about 3 hours of sleep.
Zeplin decided 7am was a good time to wake up. At least 1 of us got a good night's rest.

After breakfast, we made our way over to the sand dunes. Zeplin got a kite from the Easter Bunner and since the wind was still relentless from the night before, flying a kite was the best option.
Unforatuntely, ZJ was thrilled with the kite flying and short lived. The kite tails actually made him cry.

We opted to just digging in the sand for awhile.

 Overall, the camping trip was appreciated and we loved our cute little camper. It's nice to cross camping Bruneau off our camping list but I'm not too sure how eager we will be to get back

We finished our holiday at my parents house. We went straight from the camp to their house for dinner.

It's so nice to be home. But we can't wait to go camping again - only next time it will be on a secluded mountain top somewhere.