I came home from a photo session last Tuesday and told my hubby that I thought "we should go camping...Thursday...for 4 days". He was a little shocked and wondered if I was really serious. I reassured him I was and that it would be a lot of fun. So the planning began...secretly. There was no way we could let E know, otherwise I would've been so tired of all the questions that I would've changed my mind before it was even time to even leave. Thankfully the hubs and I are both OCD about packing/storing stuff, so getting stuff ready wasn't too bad. We planned the menu, completed our "need to pick up on the way" list and was ready to load up in less then 48 hours. I have always said, if I'm going to camp it had to be enough days to make it worth the while of getting everything packed up and set up at a site. I can't do the set up one day and tear down the next. No way!!
I wanted to share a few of my lessons from this little adventure.
1. If you purchase a new tent...set it up and check it out before you arrive at your site.
We arrived on Thursday late afternoon much later then we had planned. We unrolled our brand new, never been opened, tent only to discover it had been used by a previous merchant and then damaged...with a basketball size hole in the side of it...then packaged back up in it's originally packaging and returned to the store...then sold as brand new. So...we packed it back up...drove 30 minutes to the store and had to return/exchange it for another one. Of course they didn't have the one we purchased so we had to settle for a different one. It did the job and will be plenty big enough when we don't have to bring the pack-n-play anymore.
It was a little toasty setting everything up but the boys enjoyed helping.
2. When you have an eager toddler/4 year old who wants to help and learn...give him something to do. It truly is the only way to survive. It reduces questions and lessens tantrums.
Michael was in boy/eagle scouts and retained so much information so he is full of knowledge when it comes to the outdoors. He's like my own little Bear Grylls. lol. Ethan learned a lot over the 4 days we were there. In this picture M is teaching E how to start a fire. E's job is to break up the little sticks. He loved this job and talked about it the whole time. Not to mention he spent the daytime hours finding more sticks to use for the next fire.
 |
| I think Elliott is doing a fire dance, in the background. lol |
We didn't want the kids to expect to be off doing something the entire time. We want them to also just enjoy being outside and chilling. We urged them to hunt for things and play around the site. We brought trucks and dump trucks, so a lot of dirt/gravel was moved during our stay. We set up their little table and they drew pictures and used it to collect the things they found. We also brought some 'snaps/pops' we had left over from the fourth of July. That was great entertainment. Afterwards, they picked up the 'trash' from them which led to picking up trash around the site. We want them to just soak up the beauty of God's creation and appreciate all the wonderful things you can do outside.
PS...it was so awesome to not have hardly any cell phone coverage.
 |
| Drawing pictures |
 |
| Breakfast guests |
 |
| Throwing rocks |
 |
| Throwing 'snaps/pops' |
4. Throw out the routine
I am a creature of habit and I like my routine. I have created monsters with my kids and their routines. Thankfully E is old enough to pretty much go with the flow and e is pretty flexible. That being said...they get cranky if meal time is off or nap/quiet/bed time is altered. At bedtime the routine is pretty strict: bath, brush teeth, read stories, say prayers, go potty, sing songs then lay down. I was pretty relaxed with the time of nap time but e still went down around the usual time and thankfully had good naps everyday. Bedtime was usually at dark. Both boys did great...with the exception of the first night. E had a rough time...he doesn't like all the bug sounds and was up a lot through out the night. I don't think we slept more then an hour at a time. Finally at 3 A.M. I made up a silly saying for him to say if he woke up and he thought it was the greatest. It worked and the rest of the trip was restful.
 |
| Bath time! |
5. Do something special
Our something special was going out in the kayaks. It was fun by all. We hadn't been out in the kayaks in years so it was so much fun. Not to mention a great work out. There was splashing fights, super soaker fights and maybe even a little ramming. So many giggles. Priceless!
6. Prepare to hunker down.
Murphy's Law...if we go camping...it will storm. Without fail!! We knew there was a chance for rain and scattered storms but were hopeful they would miss us. Rain...meh...no big deal. Wind...in a tent...not so fun!! Praise the Lord there was not a lot of lighting. There was a lot of thunder but thankfully we didn't see the lightening. But the wind...oh my goodness!! We tried to put the windows up on the tent but had to leave them open to disperse the wind, otherwise the tent was collapsing on us. M even had to jump out and re-stake a side down. Not fun!! The positive of the story...(a) it blew in during the middle of the day, rather then over night and...(b) it was during nap/quiet time and the boys did great. E played on the Kindle (yes...we had to do something to take his mind off how bad it was and keep him quiet since we were all shacked up in the tent while e was sleeping) and e slept through the entire storm.
 |
| Smiling to keep from crying...wind starting to pick up |
 |
| Our screen house got the worst of it |
This is probably the hardest thing for me to deal with during any camping trip. When we decided to make this trip, I decided to just pack a bunch of extra clothes for the kiddos and put worrying about dirty clothes, dirty finger nails or consumed dirt at the bottom of my list. I must admit...it was much more enjoyable. Once getting home and looking at all the dirty clothes made me cringe but in the long run it was worth it.
8. Helpful Hint
Here is my tid bit of advise...take a screen house!! We didn't have issues with bugs after dark (we had several citronella candles) but during the day was a different story. It was like the plague of the flies. One night there were probably 200+ on the outside of the screen house. It was crazy!! I ended up trying out the water in a ziploc trick. I have had luck with it before but never tried it on a zip up door. It worked!! Rarely did we have a fly come in. So...if you don't know...put water in a ziploc and hang it in a doorway and it will keep the flies from coming in your house...or tent. Last year we tried it at a friends outdoor birthday party and hung several around the table and it helped then too.
 |
| This is just a few of the flies...on one side. |
All in all we had a great trip. We can't wait to do it again.
The journey continues...
No comments:
Post a Comment