The Babies Go Camping

My children have never been camping before. Clay and I used to camp annually with a huge group of our friends and we stayed in tents and floated down the river on tubes, but that tradition sort of fell wayward once everyone started having babies. Which is really unfortunate. We need to restart that tradition. But yes, my children. Not only did they stall their parents' camping but they themselves have never camped until last weekend.

 

It wasn't exactly intentional, this camping.  My parents called - the night before - to tell me they had reserved a spot at a campground only about a half hour away, and they wanted us to come and stay a couple nights.  I was able to get the days off of work (but Clay wasn't), so we packed a tent and an overnight bag, and the kids and I headed to the campground.

 

 

And we had such a good time!  We sunbathed (well I did), and built sand castles, and splashed in the water and the kiddos got to love on their gramma and papa. 

 

We ended up not sleeping in the tent because it was still as hot as Hades at night, so we bunked in my parents' massive camper with them and both of my brothers  (and the sweet merciful air-conditioning).  Awkward? A little, but the kids were in heaven.  In fact, Narls couldn't get over how the tables in the camper were really "transformers" with the power to turn into beds.  They both were so tired from their first day camping that they fell right to sleep with little smiles on their faces.  You can't really see Em's so well because it's hidden behind that sucky, which is another post all together, so let's move on. 

The next morning I wrapped myself in my snuggie and "freshened up" while my mom made me coffee from her keurig.  This is seriously the kind of camping I dig.  

 Clay managed to leave work early and spent the afternoons and evenings with us.  We took the kids for walks, watched the fish swim, contemplated renting a pedal boat (I'm so thankful we didn't; I try to be as lazy as possible when camping), spent some time at the huge playground in the center of the campground and ate some seriously delicious grilled burgers for dinner.

The campground itself was pretty sweet, with tons of stuff to do.  They had events planned all week, including face-painting, drop-in dodge-ball games, arts & crafts and even a dance. I'm not gonna lie, I still bummed we wouldn't be there for the dance. 

We were able to catch an arts & crafts session though.  The kids (and I!) got to make sand art by grinding different colored sticks of chalk into sand and then sprinkling it over designs drawn in glue.  Narls did his name and "thunder", Em did a swirly of some sort and I did our family, because I'm cheesy like that.  And trust me when I say all the kids at arts & crafts were super jealous of my art. 

And then we spent the rest of the day at the beach.  The water was absolutely perfect and I cannot even believe how well the kids did.  Normally they freak out at the mere thought of being put into water but not this time- they splashed and dunked their heads and wadded out as far as they could and Narls even doggy paddled by himself, something he wouldn't even attempt during his swimming lessons.

And then it was time to go.  The kids talked Clay and I into getting them some ice cream for the ride home, which honestly, was the best idea ever, and again they fell asleep as soon as their heads hit their pillows, tired out from another day camping, only this time they were in their own beds.

Maybe next year we'll shoot for two nights of camping ;)