Camping

Last weekend was Memorial Day and since Avery had school off on Friday and Merrick got off work at noon, we thought we’d take the kids camping Friday afternoon – Saturday. Well we were very naïve to think that we could show up at two different “first come, first served” campgrounds at 2:30pm on the Friday before Memorial Day and still get a spot! They were all full, which was a major bummer.

But as we pulled out of the driveway on our way, I said to everyone, “Something may not go right. We may forget something or whatever. But let’s just go with the flow!” And so we definitely had to do that. We went back home and Merrick set up the tent at the very back of our backyard (which is almost a full acre field). After each taking a couple long trips to and from the driveway to drop all of our gear off, Merrick finally decided to just drive the minivan down the hill and across the lawn to our spot. Worked great.

See how far it was? We borrowed a tent from a friend and set up an air mattress, pack n play, and the girls sleeping bags. Fit great.

Luckily our neighbors had a fire pit we could borrow and so we set up around that.

Lily had fun crawling around in the grass, and I must say it was nice to have her in the grass rather than in the dirt, which is probably how it would have been at a campground.

So after we set up it was about 4pm and we all made a pact that we were going to stay outside the rest of the night, only running inside to go potty. We did cheat on one thing, which was to stick our tin foil dinners in the oven instead of using the fire pit for that. But we did roast marshmallows for s’mores on the fire.

It sprinkled off and on but we were able to stay outside and have fun. It was nice to spend some time together outside. After we ate dinner, Merrick took the girls on an “adventure walk.” Back behind our backyard is a large uninhabited area with waist high grass and stuff. Anyways, he just took them back there and they explored around for 20 minutes. Camryn said it was her favorite part of the whole camping experience.

The night went pretty well – we put the kids to bed later than normal, waiting for it to get dark. Lily went down first and then the girls tiptoed in the tent and went to sleep in record time. They didn’t wake up all night!

Merrick and I stayed up and played Cribbage next to the fire. It was really fun! The night went okay until about 4am. Lily had woken up and was in the bed with me, our air mattress was half empty, and it was off and on thunderstorming. That’s when I called it quits and headed inside with Lily for a few hours of good sleep in my own bed (and Lily happily collapsed in her crib).  

Anyways we had a good time and we’re excited to go camping as a family again sometime, but hopefully at a real campground next time!