Friday, June 20, 2014

Camping

Yesterday we packed the car to beyond capacity and set forth for a campground a few miles away. I've always sneered at those who "camp" at campgrounds; such wimps! Pack in your gear! Rough it! With 2 kids in tow, I take back everything. In fact, next time we go (and there WILL be a next time, we all had a blast) I think we'll rent a second vehicle to haul even more gear. There were a few other families from church, each with 2 kids a piece,  and we ended up with adjacent sites so picture a little horde of kids charging about everywhere. This place had a playground, heated pool, lots of adult games (basketball, bocce, tetherball, ping pong), and the nicest cleanest bathrooms I've ever seen at a public facility. Everyone who worked there was super nice as well, stopping to chat if they went past. We were really close to the front of the place so got the main traffic but it was still (relatively) quiet, very shady. Hudson could barely contain himself there were so many people to wave to, things to look at, dirt to play in...Friends lent us their 9 person tent (yeah, it was bigger than Henri's bedroom) and other than Steve winning out so there was no blow up mattress (we will be getting one for the next trip!) everything was perfect. Perfect weather, perfect number of bugs (hardly any), perfect meals...we had fun and can't wait to try again.

So he climbs up on the chair then walks up the back to try and get out the window

I was desperately trying to pack and Henri came in to the kitchen sobbing because Clive (our fish) was missing his dad and mom. Explanations about the solitary nature of beta fish was not working until she suddenly perked up and said she'd read to him. A few minutes later I peeked into the living room and saw this. 

Hud's very into selfies AND sticking out his tongue right now, lol

We made some mini muffins for the trip and the kids had to sample

First meal and people watching. He could hear a train as well and would get a big thrill from that :)

Our campsite

First thing in the morning. He slept pretty normal, up 3x to nurse but right back to sleep

Hard to get a view of the whole place, but did I mention it was HUGE??

Our friends to the side had a site made of pure sand, so Hen was over there most of the time just digging

More eating

Hanging out in the tent

Ok, so Steve insists coffee is a drug and won't touch it. But as we were camping, he felt it was important to try a sip (I brought my french press. see why we were out of space?). He appeared in my window pretending (I thought) to drink a sip of my coffee and said he liked it. When I went to drink mine, it was half gone!!!! Little stinker loved it and guzzled it down. 

Off to the playground

There were dump trucks and both kids spent almost 2 hours filling them, playing in the pebbles, going down the slide. It was a great family space


We ate a lot

Lying in the tent while Hud napped. 

Tent takedown

We went off site for an ice cream treat. Yum!

More sand play. She got a good scrubbing when we got home :)


And the weekend's just beginning! We might have to take my little 2 person tent out in the yard and do some more camping out tomorrow night :)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I really enjoyed reading about your camping trip. We want to go camping just across the lake so as to still be close enough to check in with the animals at home. I think that most of the children would LOVE it!! Though, we do enjoy the camper right in our yard this time of year. I find it is cooler out there and I hear all kinds of outside sounds that we miss sleeping in the house. Thanks for sharing your trip with us. Joshua JUST started sticking out his tongue too!!!

Meredith said...

Nikki,
That's great about Josh, I know you were working hard to strengthen his mouth muscles! And the kids would love to camp. It's just a ton of prep work for the mom's :) But we really did have a good time and will be going again soon I hope. After a trip to REI of course ;)

Genevieve said...

Oh my gosh, that looks like so much fun!! I am sure it was a lot of work and I consider you very brave for even attempting this haha, but wow, what wonderful memories!! :)

JG said...

I haven't been brave enough to camp YET with any of my kids, but this may be the motivation I need! I have always sneered at cushy camping myself, but have obviously been too chicken to really rough it... so we might have to try the campsite! That looks like so much fun!!