While I'm def not your outdoorsy type (i.e. when I get hurt I don't rub dirt on it and shrug it off and can't run for miles without loosing my breathe etc), but I enjoy nature and spending time around a campfire talking. Code-in stark contrast to my family- went camping ALL THE TIME with his family. In fact, they went so often they even owned a camper/RV thing. They would go on road trips for weeks and campout every night (granted most of the time it was in the camper and they didn't make fires too often but still...). So naturally, it's a tradition that he really loves and that I have to admit sounds kinda fun...
So we figured-might as well start when our kiddos are young/so they grow up with it/are used to it etc. Plus, what kid doesn't love camping??? Staying up later than usual, fire, flashlights/nightgames, smores?? good times. So we heard about cherry campground up in hobble creek-right near us. It's prolly a 20 min drive away. Thanks to Code's calling with the scouts in Texas we already own a 6 man tent (we figured we'd need it one day so why by a small one) and a couple of sleeping bags. We have jake's pack-n-play and a mattress that's portable so he's all set. It seemed all too easy. Emphasis on the word "SEEMED".
Ironically enough, Jake was the easiest/did the BEST on this campout haha. We were nervous that it'd be a train wreck with a screaming baby but he actually did pretty good. The way our night started should have been a tip off tho...So we get everything packed in the car-we did an easy subway dinner so all we had to do was a fire for smores etc. We get to the campsite and find a really nice single site with a lot of shade that was relatively close to the entrance. Jake is all happy and content. I open the trunk and.....
"babe did you pack the tent?"
*silence*
"aww man!"
yeah....we forgot the tent. I couldn't decide if I was more amused or annoyed so I was a healthy mixture of both. Every camp out for the rest of our lives I will ask Code: do we have the tent? Our first lil inside joke haha. So I drove back (cause when determined I have a leadfoot) hoping I could make up some lost time.
We get back to the campsite, it was still available luckily-it was a busy night- and start putting up our gear. I really liked these sites cause you parked right there by your site so no lugging gear far etc and they had a picnic table, firepit and spot for your tent all right there.
(our tent is just off to the left of our car in this pic)
Jake checking out the tent:
After that was set up we walked around the campsite-not too big, prolly 20ish campsites (some singles, some doubles.) It was really pretty though. There's a creek that runs right through the campgrounds and there were some really big campsites for bigger ward events-there was a fathers' and sons' near us (more on that later haha). Jake loved riding around on dad's shoulders and smiling at everyone we came across.
Then we came back to our site and had our dinner of subway and chips while Jake played with his water bottle.
By the time we were done with dinner it was about time for Jake to go to bed even though it was SO not dark out haha. So I changed him in his pjs while code started the fire.
I tried to get Jake to smile with code and this funny spaz out happened:
(I love how close jake is to code's face here-I always crack up when he's this close haha)
there we go...
So it was off to bed with Jake after his bottle-which was hard to feed him on an air mattress combined with all the new things to look out, he prolly got half of it if he was lucky. Then code and I finished building the fire. Jake went down around 8:00. He didn't really cry or anything so we were so excited that he proved himself an easy-going baby. Around 8:40 some scouts were running around this steep hill that kind of ran along the back of all the campsites and they were coming into our area. Of course they were yelling back and forth and had 0 idea that they were in someone else's campsite. Granted quiet time doesn't start til 10:00 (code informed me), but still they were in MY campsite yelling with my newly-fallen asleep baby ten feet away from them. I was annoyed but I bit my tongue and tried to ignore them. Then as one was really close-literally ten feet away from us-and yelled really loud. Jake started crying. GRRRRrrrrr MAMA BEAR Is COMING OUT! I waited 2 minutes to see if he was going to calm back down. He didn't. And the boys were STILL yelling-so oblivious I swear. So I yelled (not in a mean way but so they could hear me)
"Hey guys!"
-instant silence then a- "yeah?"
"Do you hear the baby crying?"
"...yeah"
"you can go back to your campsite now, thank you!"
That was all-no biggie and they went back. Code might have been embarrassed but I'm sorry-boys sometimes need to learn consideration. Code was able to get him right back to sleep after that and he slept the rest of the night, and no more scouts came near-word must have spread haha.
We enjoyed some smores
a reese's smore
Then around 10:00 when the fire was dying down we headed off to bed. It was a bit colder than we had expected...after all it was may 31st and it wasn't like we were high up in the canyon or anything. So we burrowed down on our air mattress and blankets-we figured we'd save room and not bring the sleeping bags. (yeah...if any of you are big into camping, I'm sure you're laughing at us right about now). We played ticket to ride on the ipad and then tried to get some sleep. Emphasis on the word TRIED. It was RIDICULOUS-I could NOT get warm! Hours after being in the bed I still
didn't feel warm! I was really nervous for Jake. I mean, he was in his warmest footsy pjs and in a sleep sack as well, but it was pretty cold. I put one of our big blankets that we brought on him-even tho he doesn't usually sleep with loose blankets in his crib. So Jake was nice and snug-no problem- but on the other hand we were freezing. (Later code talked to his coworkers and they said if you're gonna do an air mattress when camping you need a blanket ontop of the mattress then you in your sleeping bag then a blanket on top.) We had a sheet and thin comforter.
We considered leaving around one but I really wanted to be able to wake up and have bfast/enjoy the morning so we tried to stick it out. by 3 am I had not been able to sleep AT ALL and was miserable. We decided to leave our stuff-it wasn't going anywhere and if others woke up in the morning and saw it they'd assume we were sleeping in (that is if they didn't realize the car was gone). Code got the car ready and loaded our valuables and I got Jake. We were in the car and driving out of the campgrounds before he realized what was going on. He woke up a lil but went right back down once we got home. Our bed never felt so good. Code went back around 7:30 and packed up all of our stuff and brought it back. Now we know how to be warm/comfortable so I'm pretty confident our next camping experience will be loads better! It's good we got all the kinks out first before we go with our friends the Engstroms next week! :)
sorry for the epic post but it was pretty epic for us.
and in other news, this is what I find in the mornings now:
a smiley boy sitting up like a champ.
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