First Camping Trip

Friends in the mommy group do an annual camping trip together.... and this year we decided to give it a try.  Jaclyn enjoyed playing with her friends and sleeping in a tent cuddled between us.  My impression?  It's ALOT of work to prepare for and then to just deal with.  Not a vacation.  But we were only out there for two nights, and only one day so that might have been part of the problem.  Also, the first night a quite large spider crawled across me as I was reading Jackie bedtime stories.  And the next evening while shaking out the dirty bedding, I found a GIANT red ant in my blanket.  So, yeah.  We'll see.  This may be the first and only camping trip.  


Making Mud Pies

 We hiked down to a creek that had water falls and a shallow swimming hole perfect for the munchkins.

Jackie was having too much fun to nap.... and then the day turned to evening and it was time to take off the swim clothes and put on warmer clothes, and she refused.  She's been throwing some serious tantrums these days and I am battling for control.  I threatened to pack up and leave if she wouldn't get dressed.  I mean seriously, she was only wearing panties and the temp was dropping fast.  Finally I just put her down in a chair and proceeded with packing up camp.  Next thing I new, she had fallen asleep.  This photo was taken after we draped my sweatshirt over her and moved the chair into the tent..... you can see that I have packed up the bedding in the background.  Benefit of all that hard work and frustration.... discovery of that giant red ant before it had a chance to bite me all night long!

 Angel Face

Our tent is ridiculously huge, in dwarfs other tents.  The first night as the wind whipped through we learned that there are some disadvantages to a big tent.  And the second night when the temp dropped significantly and we had taken our rain cover off because the wind had been whipping it all around, we got cozy under the blankets in one small corner of that huge space.  Not so efficient.  

We have a lot to learn about camping.... and we are thankful we had experienced friends to do it with!