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Bodega Bay Family Photographer | Camping with My Family

If I am very quiet I can hear waves crashing. The ocean is less than a mile away.

A flock of starlings dart bravely over our heads, trying to sneak a midday snack.

Laughter. Giggling babies and dust on my feet as my boy runs by throwing twigs into a bucket, calling it Turtle Soup.

Every now and then or as often as we can we stop. Enjoy our time as a family. Camp. We just get outside. There is nothing more peaceful than the sounds of nature and morning snuggles in a tent. This year is the last time we have all the time in the world before our oldest starts Kindergarten. We will soon be ruled the schedule of school…but for now we are as free as the starlings. I am lucky to have a husband with a job that allows time off mid-week, when we can head out on mini adventures as a family of four. I want nothing more than to show my children this gorgeous world we live in. We have a US map in our living room with pins stuck in every place we have been as a family and every day I am dreaming of a new place I can take the two of them to experience something new. I want their lives to be filled with wonder and adventure, even if our adventures are mellow right now with our new baby in tow…

I will always remember these days, with the dirty fingernails of my four year old, the sound of his sweet voice and soft babbles from the baby, the smell of campfire smoke on my husband’s jacket. If I could freeze my life in any given moment it would be when I was with these guys. At home, away, it doesn’t matter. Anywhere I am with them is where I want to be.

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Decompressing in the Black Rock Desert | Black Rock Nevada Photographer

I admit I am a bit of a work-a-holic. It can be great for business and borderline unhealthy for my personal life 🙂 My husband has been twisting my arm to take a few days off so we can take an adults-only camping trip to the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. After lining up Grandma to watch our son, we headed out for 4 days of relaxation and reconnection.

Black Rock is an interesting place. After driving east into Nevada we cruised into Gurlach, a town that seems impossibly in the middle of nowhere. Tumbleweeds blew across the street as we parked at Bruno’s Country Club for breakfast before heading out on the playa. Dropping off the highway onto the flat, salty playa was it. Last chance for civilization. We drove almost 50 miles across the remains of what was Pleistocene Lake Lohontan that once covered much of Nevada. The salty lake bed crunched under our tires. We spent time running around the playa, taking photos, and working on our Go Pro video before heading out to the Black Rock Hot Springs nestled in the shadow of well, a black rock 🙂

I admit it was refreshing to shut off the cell phone and enjoy the kind of quiet that is so rare these days. It was so quiet if the wind was still there was literally no sound. There was not another soul for 50 miles the entire 4 days in the desert. It was hard to pack up and leave after dipping in the natural hot springs, hiking, laughing with my husband, and reading to my hearts content without any notion of actual time.

If you are not convinced on the necessity of a trip like this, you should check out our video. I cannot put into words how much fun it was to be one with nature for a few days.