I have camped with my family for as long as I can remember, and camping trips with our kids are something Jeremy and I have both looked forward to for a long time. We started taking Emma camping when she was three months old. (Although, I have to confess that I chickened out on spending the night that trip when the weather forecast called for overnight temps below freezing. Yes, it was a total new mom freak out moment.) Emma's first four camping adventures haven't gone so well, but I'm determined.
This week, my sister and two friends took our three girls (all under three) for an overnight camping trip to a nearby state park. I went camping with the same two friends last summer. That trip was more than a little bit disastrous. In the end, one crying baby had to go home at ten o'clock at night. One toddler kept the campsite (and the very pregnant mama in her tent) awake screaming until after midnight. And we had to call poison control after someone's child was discovered with a bottle of Advil gelcaps dumped in her lap. Oops.
Anyways, I'm determined (and my friends are pretty good sports, too). So Wednesday afternoon we packed our fam van and headed to the state park. We picked a quiet (well, seemingly quiet) spot located in the primitive section of the campground. (We sacrificed flush toilets for a $6 site and a spot where the girls could ride their bikes without much traffic.) Our girls had a blast playing.
Emma doesn't look like she's having a blast in this picture, but that's just because Hailey's smiling and the two of them have conspired to never smile at the same time while anyone in the vicinity is holding a camera.
There's just something incredibly fun about bikes and camping. Emma got her princess bike as an early birthday present from Jeremy's parents, and she LOVES it. She got pretty good at whizzing around our campsite and only needed one Elmo bandaid to make a full recovery from her crashes.
All in all, the day went really well. You can't beat friends, S'mores, and...
And even though my daughter spent more time doing this...
than sleeping, that was okay, too. The biggest disappointment of the trip actually had nothing to do with the girls. It was the fact that our quiet and secluded spot turned into a really loud and really bright spot about two o'clock in the morning. The campers across from us decided to have a super. loud. fight. Eventually they left and the cops came. Raya and Hailey slept right through it, but Emma had a little party in our tent from about 3:00 until 5:00 a.m. (I'm still holding my breath hoping that she didn't learn any new vocabulary words.) It was not a fun night.
Thankfully, we woke up to a beautiful day and managed to muster enough energy for a picnic at the lake before heading home. The girls were a little tired and crabby, but we escaped without any meltdowns.
Tia and Emma even got in a good water fight.
Scraped knees. Middle-of-the-night potty runs. A van crammed with supplies for a one-night trip. It's all worth it. I still heart camping. (And I totally heart my mom and dad for all the times they took my brother, sister, and me camping. I'm learning that camping as a parent takes a whole lot of effort.)
Hopefully I'll be lucky enough to smell campfire smoke on my clothes again soon.
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