Pinnacles National Park

We visited the newest national park - Pinnacles - 2 weekends ago to take our nephew, Scott on a camping trip before we leave California.  Daniel and I LOVE camping, and it was so very special and fun to have Scott with us.  Mark and June - no worries, you guys will have special Aunt/Uncle outings in the future (when you can remember them)!

Pinnacles National Park

Big belly and cutie nephew!

Scott and Daniel building a fire.

I was a little nervous about the whole sleeping situation while almost 32 weeks pregnant, but everything turned out wonderfully.  The campground was practically empty and huge, so we had privacy even though it was a drive-in site (we usually prefer hike-in primitive sites for more privacy... I want to feel like I'm out in the woods when I'm camping, not sharing a site with my neighbors!).  I brought extra pillows and blankets because I knew we wouldn't have to haul our stuff to the site... but Scott decided most of those were his.  :)  No problem, though, we all slept relatively well and woke up to turkeys gobbling outside of our tent.

Scott is such a climber!

Pinnacles has AMAZING caves you can hike through.  It's dark inside (hence Scott's headlamp), so we don't have pictures, but there are waterfalls and massive rock formations and lots of squatting/climbing (big belly crawling through tunnels = hilarious sight, no doubt).  Scott LOVED climbing and was so much fun.  That night after we built a campfire, cooked pie-iron beer dogs (don't judge - the alcohol boils off, yeah?) and had one s'more (seriously, who eats just one?!), Scott said "I think it's time to go to bed" and proceeded to the tent and fell asleep in ~10 minutes (I laid next to him and told him a "story from my mouth" - those of you that know the Wagners will know that phrase from Scott).  Daniel and I continued our s'more eating without him. 

Overall, it was an awesome trip and totally special.  Birthdays are just days, Christmas is almost certainly not the day Jesus was really born, showers and graduations are just little get-togethers, a marriage certificate is just a piece of paper, and this was just a weekend, sure...  but I whole-heartedly believe that things have both inherent value (God values people and things, like marriage) and value that we give it.  So I say celebrate things!  Give them meaning and value!  Bust out the red plate (my family had a red plate that said "You are Special" on it that came out when someone in the family achieved something, had a birthday, etc.) and take every opportunity to demonstrate your love by making a big deal out of things! I say all of this mostly to inspire myself because I'm still a work in progress.  I'm still working on getting better at sending letters, gifts, etc. to make it a point that people in my life know they are loved and valued by me, so feel free to call me out!