Real camping

Since we'd had our trial run at home, we opted for our first real camping trip with the kids to be one night, close to home- you know, JUST in case. We made the reservations a while back, and boy, it came fast. I made lists of things to make sure to pack, groceries to pick up, camping extras to make sure came along too. It took me a few hours to get all the stuff together and make sure nothing important was left behind. Man, getting ready is a lot of work!

Jacob woke up ready to go that morning. The minute he saw me, he told me he was ready to get dressed to go. I had some chores and errands, Kevin had a few work things, but we were finally out the door. Thank goodness we didn't have far to go- you would have thought the drive was sheer torture for the kids. Little did they know the work required once we got there....

The kiddos were good helpers, for a few minutes anyway. We got the tent set up, the chairs out, and exlored a little around our site. They were looking so forward to all the adventures we would have! Up first- swimming in the lake. Thanks to the heat and bit of humidty, we were all kinds of sweaty after setting up camp. Swimming would be a great way to cool off and get our adventure started.

The water was nice and cool. But, the bottom was mostly rocks and not fun to stand on. Closer to the shore, it was "ooey gooey"(J said), so they were happy to play at the edge while Kevin and I watched from the rocky-sandy beach. The kids quickly made friends with some other kids cooling off in the lake. They all played with the sand and water together until it was dinner time.

Back at camp, we enjoyed simple moments of camping- tossing the football, reading, listening to ipod, playing games, drawing and coloring, blowing bubbles... I made simple hot dogs (no chili or cheese) on the propane stove. You know, there's something about hot dogs when you're camping, they just taste better.

We often refer to Jacob as being like the dog on the Pixar movie "Up". He is easily distracted from something he's doing or even saying, like when the dog says "squirrel" in the movie. Lo and behold, Jacob got distracted by a real squirrel and proceeded to chase that poor squirrel around and around the tree. It was too funny! Eventually we discovered that it was a brave squrirrel, and Jacob was able to feed it some bread.

After dinner, to help the waiting for dark (for the fire and s'mores), we headed to the park. With the sun going down, we were hoping the slides wouldn't burn their legs. We knew Beth was competitive, but we could really see it coming out in Jacob too. If he was climbing up a ladder/rock wall by himself, he paid attention and was careful, but if Beth were there at the same time, he would rush up to beat her. A few gasping moments for me, but he figured it out after he fell from one of the rocking horse kind of toys. Silly boy!

Finally, it was time for a fire. Man, those old fence boards Kevin took down at home really came in handy! I got all the s'more stuff ready. What's a camping trip without s'mores?! Jacob didn't bother with cooking his- he just ate the ingredients. Kevin just like his marshmellows roasted- as in caught on fire and blown out quickly. Beth like her marshmellows just a little squishy, but she did want the full-blown s'more. I like my marshmellows just to the point of showing any roasting on the "skin", warm enough to melt the chocolate on the s'more. Yummy!

What a long and adventurous day! The kids were actually asking to go to bed. So, one last trip to the bathroom, brush teeth and into bed. It was hot still, at 10pm. I had only made the beds with sheets. At some point I woke up freezing cold, wishing I'd put the blankets on the beds too. But, I didn't dare move in case I woke up the kids. They were out cold. A bird was chirping at 6am, the sun was coming up, but I managed to get back to sleep. About 7, I woke up again, snapped a sweet pic of the kids, still sound asleep.

After breakfast of yummy bacon and eggs, we got ready for fishing. The kids brought their Disney poles, Kevin brought his tackle box and a tub of worms. Exciting stuff!