Campground opening

I wish had words to describe the feelings behind finally opening the Inn Town Campground... I'm sure we'll look back in awe of that sheer amount of work we had to do to make our dream a reality.  I wrote a blog post attempting to thank folks... but I think the feedback I've gotten in the last couple of weekends speaks volumes.

"I met your son Josh and he was a perfect gentleman.  We loved that he was friendly and professional and offered us a free ice cream sandwich and said you guys have been working on this for 3 years and no he doesn't get paid for his job."

"I've been following you along on Instagram and feel like I've watched the campground being built and feel like we're invested in the story."

"I can't believe how forested it feels."

"You guys have thought of everything, the attention to detail is amazing."

"We can't believe you just opened."

"Did you guys just buy this place?"  To which we responded, "No we built it" and got a mouth open stare.

"You guys have thought of everything, the camp store with ice cream, the outdoor sinks, the amazing bathrooms, the movie nights..."  

"I spent the weekend there and I'd drive back from the Bay Area just for the outdoor shower."

"We can't wait to come back."

"We love the kitchen, it's so great to have the space available."

"We're so excited to be so close to town."

"Your staff were amazing, everyone has been so friendly, we feel like we're a part of the family."

"I found you in Sunset, congrats."

And I'm totally blown away by the amount of support people have provided, both in offerings of help, to folks expressing how proud they are of us, to entertaining our children.  It takes a village and we couldn't have done this on our own.  Surreal.  Our new reality.

Happy 11th Birthday Ben

Ben, 11 years old.  We celebrated his birthday a couple of days early to help accommodate the Inn Town Campground grand opening.  Many thanks to Nana for organizing a pool party with pizza, cake and a 10 foot tall inflatable minion.  The party consisted of water gun fights, nerf wars, zip lines, presents and birthday cake.  Thanks for being patient with us as we worked every possible moment leading up and during your birthday.  The party was a great chance to stop and celebrate the very special 11 year old person in our world.    

A weekend in Guerneville

Our friends Cathy & Aaron got married yesterday afternoon in the Armstrong Woods State Natural Reserve and Dan and I took the opportunity to get out of town and celebrate.  Campground building is a lot of work!  We randomly found ourselves at the one of the sections of the Tour of California bicycle race, so we stood on a bridge over the Russian River and cheered on the women's race.  

And we dusted off the trailer and spent two nights in a campground.  The disadvantage to building a campground is that everything feels like a learning opportunity (we were not that impressed with where we stayed).  But, it was nice to get away.  Looking forward to the return of the boys, who spent the weekend with Uncle Bob and Grandpa doing crazy things like the Maker Faire in San Mateo.

Safari West

A couple of photos from our quick getaway to Safari West, what a great way for the boys to experience fabulous animals, plus they loved sleeping in the glamping tent and can't wait to test out the tents at the Inn Town Campground.

Arrow of Light

Ben, in the Cub Scout bridging ceremony to Boy Scouts.  He received his Arrow of Light patch, which means he has completed all the requirements as a Cub Scout and now moves on to the Boy Scouts.  So thankful that Dan has been able to be Ben's Den leader for the last 4 years.  While Josh will still be an active member of Pack 23 Cub Scouts, we're excited to join the Boy Scouts Troop in Nevada City.  Thanks Val for some of these photos, always good to have a professional photographer in the Cub Scout family.

Pinewood Derby Cars

Since I am hopelessly behind on the family blog, here are a few photos of the boys' Pinewood Derby cars, do you know what they are?

October Getaway

It's the middle of October...  what have we been doing with our time?  Building a campground?  I should go back and find some random daily life photos to share... but in the mean time here are some photos from our 3 night trip to the coast.  The boys and I went camping with the Renekers at Costona.  I met my spring camping resolution of setting the tent up on my own (I did a practice run at the Inn Town Campground before we left) and feel like I could handle going camping without Dan again (although it certainly helped that he packed all the camping gear).    

A little San Francisco culture with Uncle Bob.