Mother's Day Weekend: Off the Grid

This past weekend, Mother's Day weekend, we went to the desert.  Not that desert, not the glamorous desert, but about 20 miles North of Kramer Junction off of 395.

It was my dad's birthday and a few of his long-time friend's birthdays.   My parents have been going camping with the same group of friends since they were teenagers.  For his birthday my dad organized this camping trip.

Stories and jokes were told around the fire pit, just like they were when I was a kid.

The only signs of a little civilization were these markers and

loosely maintained roads.

Camp.  No power.  No hookups.  No TV.  No blogger.  No Instagram.  No Facebook.  No feeds.  You get the picture ;)

To give you some perspective of how far out there we were.

I was a little hesitant to go.  I was nervous my girl would get bored.  She was going to be the only kid among 12 adults.  I didn't want to bring a bunch of toys or entertainment because I wanted her to unplug too, but I wasn't sure how'd she do.  My parent's friends were laughing because this was basically me 25 years ago.  My parents had me way before any of their friends had kids, so I was always the only kid in camp.  My girl brought a few toys and I did not here the words "I'm bored" once.

We rode bikes.  I had my own dirt bike before I could ride a bicycle.

My girl got to spend quality time with my mom and dad.  She had so much fun, she didn't want to come home to San Diego.  She wanted to go home with them.  There was a time when I trained myself not to cry when I had to say goodbye to my parents.  That all went out the window when my girl started crying when saying goodbye to them.

This is a sign of a good time.  My girl never, ever, sleeps in the car, especially during the day.  I'm so glad we chose to go out.  The best mother's day gift I could ever get is seeing my girl connecting with my parents.  Hope you all had a nice weekend!

XO,

Amber