A few weeks ago we planned to go camping with a group of eight other families. When Friday rolled around only two families were still able to join us, and we had a marvelous time. Emily, Nathan, and I spent all day getting ready, with Andrew joining us around three for the final preparations. As we pulled out at 4:30pm to head to the campground, Emily exclaimed, “This is your birthday adventure!”
During the fifty minute drive we hit a small rainstorm which revealed a double rainbow. We took it as a good sign for our first camping trip as a family of four.
The Hughes had scouted out a good spot for us and started the fire. We set up camp (we had a moment of panic when the rain started and we jumped for rainflies to keep the insides of the tent dry), cooked dinner, had s’mores, and got kids settled for the night. It was cold (upper 30’s) so we stayed bundled up and went to bed around nine to stay warm. Emily slept great and Nathan was up a few times. We managed to squeeze all of us into a three person tent with the pack n play set up for Nathan.
What three families worth of food looks like.
In the morning we had breakfast and Andrew made char cloth. We packed overnight oats and apples to bake in the fire. In reality Emily ate a sleeve of grahm crackers and bread with her friends.
The Jensen’s brought their telescope and we were able to look at the moon.
There was a flock of very large birds hanging out near our campsite. I didn’t see them until Emily pointed them out.
Once breakfast was cleaned up, we went on a short hike to find the playgrounds. The kids really enjoyed being able to play on the slide and dinosaurs. Nathan was thrilled to be out of our arms, the tent, or the stroller.
The second playground we went to had free mini golf. Emily was quick to figure out how play and hit the ball in every hole (with a few adjustments). Nathan tried crawling through the little houses, without much success.
Andrew stayed behind to do some reading and cleaned up our tent. We joined him and went for a short hike to see the 24 hole frisbee golf course and waterfall. After lunch back at the campsite the kids played hide and seek in the woods and then our family headed home around 12:30.
It was an absolute camping success, and next time we will hopefully stay for a few more nights!
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