The Great Outdoors

Last summer we went camping with our really good friends and had a great time. This year I wasn't so sure we would be going as my friend is like 8 months prego and we had a newborn baby. I debated and debated on whether or not we should go this year when our friends asked.

But, I decided to at least try it. We actually took a 3 month old baby CAMPING.... Like sleeping on the ground in a tent camping!

We left on Friday night around 5 and got to the campground around 7:30. We got the great 'luck' to get stuck behind a jerk in a truck pulling an RV that didn't think he should ever pull over. He finally got the idea and pulled over when he had 3 or 4 cars following him.

So we get the tent up and have a wonderful dinner of hot dogs. We then visited for awhile before we all decided it was bedtime. This is how our kids looked before bed that night:


Baby girl did AWESOME!!!!!! When she would stir she'd just suck on her pacifier and she fell back to sleep. I would've slept better had I not been so worried about her waking up in the middle of the night.

The next morning we took our time getting things ready. I tried to get a pancake breakfast going and it was a comedy of errors...The little things that go above the campstove burners, so that the pot isn't resting right on the heating unit weren't with our campstove. So I tried cooking the pancakes on top of the heating units. About 2 turned out great...the next one ended up burned on the outside but not done at all one the inside. So, then I tried another pan and again got a couple good ones before they started burning. My friend then said she had an oven rack that she had brought just in case the campfire pit didn't have a rack on it. So we put that above the stove and it worked okay...at least we had a mostly nice breakfast!

After breakfast we got our breakfast mess all cleaned up and then everyone got ready for the day. We were trying to decide when we wanted to go down to the lake and we decided we would go after lunch.

So we had lunch and we all headed down to the lake. Eric took care of Ailey while Nate and Lex ran around crazy. Shaylyn 'jumped' right into the lake and Tanis tried out fishing and after he got bored of that he decided to join those of us 'in' the lake.


When Ailey decided it was time to eat Eric and I headed back with Tanis, Nate and one of our friends sons, while they watched after Shaylyn and Lex. When we got back to camp Eric and I just relaxed while the kids ran around some more.
When our friends returned we started to get dinner ready. We had lots of fun trying to get coals for our friends dutch oven potatoes lit. Our friends tried a few 'flammable' things to get it going and not really anything worked - until we tried the cooking spray...It got major laughs out of everyone!


After dinner, Eric and his friend with a couple of the kids went up to our campsite and tried to play a game. I stayed down by the fire and tried to stay warm. That night Ailey slept pretty soundly most of the night, but Nate had another fitful night.

We woke up and tried to warm up by the fire and then we had an easy breakfast of cereal. We then packed everything up while my friend took Shaylyn & Lex, along with her kids - back to the lake to try to catch fish. So after we got everything packed, Eric played a game of Magic with Tanis and I had fun watching Nate run around enjoying life. Ailey was also a pretty happy camper!


When the kids all returned we had lunch and then got ready to head out - only to find that our friends car battery had died! Well, last year we had the mishap - so I guess this year it was their turn! Luckily we both had jumper cables and we got their van started in no time!

We left the campsite around 1 and Eric let us stop to get smoothies on the way home! It was an awesome time and I am so glad I didn't let the fear of taking a little baby camping stand in my way. I really needed the out!