My family has a tradition of camping over the Memorial Day weekend. Every year we've been asked to go along. Every year we've said "NO!" Don't get me wrong, I love camping--most of the time. The first year that they camped, Tristan was less than a month old. The second year, we spent Memorial Day weekend moving back from Georgia. Last year, I was hugely pregnant with Bennett. This year, we were out of excuses and it was time for my children to experience a "real" camp out. We've camped with our children. In a tent. In the backyard. We had yet to attempt sleeping out in the great outdoors without the option of moving back indoors if it started raining, or someone got scared or we were just a wee bit uncomfortable. SO, I packed my whole house and we travelled down to Cave Run Lake State Park for some camping action. For one night. You didn't honestly think I was crazy enough to try it for a whole weekend on our first time out, did you??
The kids were SO excited to be camping. They had been looking forward to it for the whole week, asking when we were going to leave. They were excited about sleeping outside, spending time with their aunts and uncles and SMORES!!!
We got all set up(Actually, Mom and Lorie and Joanna went down early and pretty much set everything up for us!), had an awesome dinner and prepared to settle down for the night in the great outdoors. I use the term "settle down" pretty loosely in this instance. As you can imagine, Tristan and Maura in a tent together was a pretty volatile situation. Sleep did not come easily or early to this silly duo!
Sleep...we'll we really didn't do too much of that at all. Bennett, who has been sleeping through the night for the past two months or so, chose to wake up three times in the middle of the night. The last time, he screamed because I couldn't find his paci in the pitch dark tent and it took me awhile to maneuver him out of the pack-n-play, unzip my sleeping bag and undress myself enough to nurse him and quiet him down. In the meantime, the whole campsite was disturbed. I'll go out on a limb and say that most of the campsites on our loop were disturbed. We managed to wake up both Alex and her friend Hayley, who thought it was wake up time. It took several hours for everyone to settle back down and by then, Tristan was awake. AWESOME. My hero of a husband took both boys on a walk so that I could sleep just a little bit longer!! What a man! What a multitasker!
The kids were SO excited to be camping. They had been looking forward to it for the whole week, asking when we were going to leave. They were excited about sleeping outside, spending time with their aunts and uncles and SMORES!!!
We got all set up(Actually, Mom and Lorie and Joanna went down early and pretty much set everything up for us!), had an awesome dinner and prepared to settle down for the night in the great outdoors. I use the term "settle down" pretty loosely in this instance. As you can imagine, Tristan and Maura in a tent together was a pretty volatile situation. Sleep did not come easily or early to this silly duo!
Sleep...we'll we really didn't do too much of that at all. Bennett, who has been sleeping through the night for the past two months or so, chose to wake up three times in the middle of the night. The last time, he screamed because I couldn't find his paci in the pitch dark tent and it took me awhile to maneuver him out of the pack-n-play, unzip my sleeping bag and undress myself enough to nurse him and quiet him down. In the meantime, the whole campsite was disturbed. I'll go out on a limb and say that most of the campsites on our loop were disturbed. We managed to wake up both Alex and her friend Hayley, who thought it was wake up time. It took several hours for everyone to settle back down and by then, Tristan was awake. AWESOME. My hero of a husband took both boys on a walk so that I could sleep just a little bit longer!! What a man! What a multitasker!Below: I couldn't wait to show Maura the surprise that I had for her in the morning. My little naturalist was in nature heaven on the campsite. After she'd finally gone to sleep the night before, I caught her a surprise and presented it to her the next morning...
It was a HUGE moth. It was at least as large as my hand. She LOVED it. She thought it was absolutely the coolest thing she'd seen EVER! I love that she was so excited about this moth. She enjoyed watching it for most of the morning, and then we both agreed that she should let it go to allow it to live out it's days in freedom. We loved watching it flutter away to freedom. I'm so glad I took this photo of it as proof that she had such a cool moth!
It was a HUGE moth. It was at least as large as my hand. She LOVED it. She thought it was absolutely the coolest thing she'd seen EVER! I love that she was so excited about this moth. She enjoyed watching it for most of the morning, and then we both agreed that she should let it go to allow it to live out it's days in freedom. We loved watching it flutter away to freedom. I'm so glad I took this photo of it as proof that she had such a cool moth! Below: We decided on Saturday morning to take a hike. When I heard the words "hike" I automatically pictured a wide, level trail on which we would stroll for approximately a half hour, then leisurely make out way back to camp. Boy was I wrong! Everyone set out strong. Joanna was the WOMAN! She carried Hayley in a backpack the WHOLE way--and she's pregnant!
In actuality, our leisurely stroll turned out to be a mile plus hike up a mountainside. Tristan made it about three hundred yards before he decided he was tired and couldn't walk any longer. I managed to carry him most of the rest of the way on my back. My arms got numb, trying to hold him on a piggyback and I thought my back was going to break before I finally traded him for Bennett, who just needed a nap with his Mommy!
What and awesome group of hikers. We all took a much needed and much deserved break at the top of the mountain before heading back down. Why does it always seem like the way down is so much shorter than the way up??
Maura was a trooper! She walked almost the whole way up and back. She's little, but she's tough! By the time we came back to camp, we were all exhausted--except Bennett, who took his nap on the hike. He amused himself by throwing all his toys out at his sleeping Daddy.
That afternoon, we took our other(unfortunately nap-free) children for a dip in the lake. The beach was closed. Actually, the beach was under 10-15 feet of water. We chose, instead, to wade in the lake at a paved path that lead straight into the rain swollen lake. The kids loved it and had such a great time wading, splashing and making funny faces!
We took them all for a short canoe ride after swimming. Alex loved it(screamed almost the whole time). Maura thought it was awesome and asked to accompany us for anther ride. Can you see the trees out in the lake. They're supposed to be on land. We could actually tell from where the leaves had died on the trees that the water had been another eight or so feet up from where it was that weekend.
AND, this is why boys love camping so much--the world is their toilet. Tristan LOVED the idea of peeing in the outdoors and could frequently be spotted dropping his drawers and relieving himself. He's hilarious. If you happen to be with him in a bathroom stall, he "needs privacy" and requires you to leave. He has no problem, though, pulling his pants down, exposing himself to the wide world and peeing off the edge of the campsite!
In actuality, our leisurely stroll turned out to be a mile plus hike up a mountainside. Tristan made it about three hundred yards before he decided he was tired and couldn't walk any longer. I managed to carry him most of the rest of the way on my back. My arms got numb, trying to hold him on a piggyback and I thought my back was going to break before I finally traded him for Bennett, who just needed a nap with his Mommy!
What and awesome group of hikers. We all took a much needed and much deserved break at the top of the mountain before heading back down. Why does it always seem like the way down is so much shorter than the way up??
Maura was a trooper! She walked almost the whole way up and back. She's little, but she's tough! By the time we came back to camp, we were all exhausted--except Bennett, who took his nap on the hike. He amused himself by throwing all his toys out at his sleeping Daddy.
That afternoon, we took our other(unfortunately nap-free) children for a dip in the lake. The beach was closed. Actually, the beach was under 10-15 feet of water. We chose, instead, to wade in the lake at a paved path that lead straight into the rain swollen lake. The kids loved it and had such a great time wading, splashing and making funny faces!
We took them all for a short canoe ride after swimming. Alex loved it(screamed almost the whole time). Maura thought it was awesome and asked to accompany us for anther ride. Can you see the trees out in the lake. They're supposed to be on land. We could actually tell from where the leaves had died on the trees that the water had been another eight or so feet up from where it was that weekend.
AND, this is why boys love camping so much--the world is their toilet. Tristan LOVED the idea of peeing in the outdoors and could frequently be spotted dropping his drawers and relieving himself. He's hilarious. If you happen to be with him in a bathroom stall, he "needs privacy" and requires you to leave. He has no problem, though, pulling his pants down, exposing himself to the wide world and peeing off the edge of the campsite!Below: Later that evening, after a supper of spaghetti and smores, we cleaned up the kids, packed up our tent and headed back to civilization. It was a great camping experience, minus a little sleep, and by next year I think we'll be recovered enough to try it again!!
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