CAMPING - NOVEMBER 2011

With our new addition, Zayne, our little dome tent was just not big enough! Actually now that I think about it, it would have been just fine for this adventure. After much research and hunting for our next tent we (or rather I) decided on the Coleman Vacationer, a two room 10 person cabin. Knowing that Charlie was going to be out of town that weekend, Zachery and I practiced setting it up by ourselves in the backyard prior to our fun filled weekend, we did it! So our big weekend came, our friend's the Reed's were going to meet us out there sometime that night, but I really wanted to get there before it got dark. So the boys and I took off around 3:30pm about an hour later than I had hoped, ugg! Oh well ... maybe we can still get there around 5pm, I thought, set up camp quickly and be cooking dinner by 5:30pm. Ha! I was totally dreaming!! My boys were hungry at 5pm, we were still about 15 to 20 minutes from the campgrounds so they had goldfish and cookies, I thought it was very nutritious! Ha! So we finally get to the campgrounds and of course we miss the office closing by 10 minutes, I mean the place was vacant! We were able to find our way to the campgrounds, found a nice location near the restrooms and near another family. I was hoping that I could get the tent set up before Zayne started his nightly "hold me" routine. I managed to get the tent laid out, the poles placed and ready for Zachery before the crying happened. I kept thinking to myself, "and I think this is fun!" ... Ahh if I didn't have some of these moments then we wouldn't be making memories, right? It gets better by the way!

So I get the boys out of the truck because I don't want the campers near us thinking that I ignore my crying kids, because by the time I got to the truck to get them they were both crying :) Anyways, we got the tent up, the rain cover on and all our stuff inside the tent or the shelter. So I am looking for our air pump ... then a flash back to the last time we went camping, the silly thing stopped working so I threw it away. GREAT! Soooo glad that I brought the hand pump at the last minute, LOL!! If you can imagine this, both kids in the tent, PJ's on the movie Cars playing on our portable DVD player, me hand pumping the silly queen sized mattress then Zayne starts patting the ground next to him indicating "mommy come sit down with us and watch the movie" ... what do you do, well you sleep on a 1/4 filled air mattress with two boys on either side of you squishing you because you sink to the bottom and they get all the air :) At this point I was laughing!

Our friends came around 11:30pm, they were able to get their camp set up in about 30 minutes. But Zayne woke up at the end and wouldn't go back to sleep for about 3 to 4 hours, I lost track. I was so tired when they both woke up at 6:30am! Don't worry I brought coffee!! But it was worth it, when I opened the cabin doors both of them immediately started exploring. My favorite moment, other than the mud, was when we were out exploring and Zachery said "Mom, come on lets go on an adventure" as he leads us down a unknown path in the woods. After nap, the boys found a faucet and mud! It was a very joyful time ... they played for about an hour. Later we went for a hike and played at the playground. Zach and Zayne fell to the ground after going down the slide and started throwing rocks together side by side, I had to take the picture before I stopped the throwing, priorities :)

With the chance of rain that night, we packed up camp after dinner. Neither one of us wanted to break camp in the morning if it was raining. So sadly we only stayed one night. Our friends had an air compressor so my mattress was full too. Oh well! Believe me when we got home I went out and purchased an air pump and some more batteries because our interior LCD light didn't work without batteries :) Even though it seemed like I didn't have fun, I truly did! The boys had a blast too. Can't wait until next time!!