First Camping Trip.

This past summer, I got an itch to go camping.

  

As I reflect on my childhood, many of my my dearest, funniest, (and best remembered) memories are from camping.  I didn't go with my mom and dad-they're not the camping sorts-but with my Grandpa and Grandma Garner, and usually a few aunts and uncles and several cousins.  It's been twenty years (eeks), but even now as adults when we get together a camping memory usually weaves itself into the conversation.

I was wanting this for my children.  They should experience camping, and make memories.  They should be surrounded by nature and cook dinner over a fire and sleep on the hard ground (that's important, right?)  

I mentioned my desire to go camping to some good friends of our, Jim and Megan.  Jim takes his kids camping regularly, and it was really him who got the ball rolling.   It went from "I think we should go camping" to "Ok then, here's the link, go make your reservation".

So, we set out to go camping with our friends the first weekend after school started.  Immediately after making the reservation online, fear set it.  What was I doing?  Matt and I have never been camping together.  We have children that are afraid of the dark!  Nathan and Ella slept in the tent one time, two years ago, and they woke up at 6 a.m. because they were frightened by the shadow of a bug.  I suddenly realized all the things that could go wrong!

But, we pressed on...and I'm so thankful we did.

(I should mention that we did have the foresight to choose a state park within 30 minutes from home, we were only going to be gone for about 24 hours, and I had a bail-out plan.)

We loaded up the mini and managed to strategically fit everything.  The kids were a little surprised at how much "stuff" we were taking...sleeping bags, tent, cooler, folding chairs, blankets...it was a little different than an over-nighter at Papa's.

After a quick drive and setting up our tent, we went for a hike.  The weather was near perfect.  Not hot, not cold, not humid, not windy.  Just sunny and nice.  It was fun to go out on trails that I hiked as a girl.  Most of it felt very familiar.

 The first twenty minutes was more like speed hiking...very loud speed hiking.

But once the kids got running and screaming out of their system, we settled to a pace more conducive for nature exploration.  We found many amazing spiderwebs and had several conversations about moss. :)

 I love this group of kids!

 
This is the final stretch of the hike.

This photo is blurry (because I took it while walking), but I thought these two looked sweet.  It turns out Matt picked Evs up because she had to go potty.  Shortly after this, Evelyn got her first peeing in the woods experience...


Nathan found this leaf suspended in a spider web.  Even in person the web was extremely difficult to see, so he had the idea to take this photo.  He's using "the force" to hold the leaf in the air.

Once back to the site, it was time for dinner prep.  We went with a camping staple:hobo dinners!

(meat and veggies wrapped in foil)

While dinner cooked the dads took some kids fishing.  Many of the girls stayed back with me.  They played at a park while I read a book by the fire...total bliss.
(It was also a good call to go camping with older, responsible kids.)

Then it was time to eat.  I'm guessing not every crew would go through the trouble of setting the table while camping, but these are not ordinary girls!

It was great to watch them put such joy and detail into getting the table ready.

Evelyn, who loves most of God's small creatures, was very excited to find a woolly bear!

After dinner, the boys went fishing again and I got to hang out with the girls!

We read some more and talked some girly talk in our jammies.

 

 After a while, they got impatient and started making "smacos".  

Our night ended sitting around the campfire eating s'mores.  Evelyn fell asleep in my arms, and everyone else went to bed, with no issues, at about 10:30.  Spending the day outside makes one tired, which is good because at 34 the ground was a little harder than I remembered it.  It was also forecasted to be chilly during the night (about 48 degrees), but we planned accordingly and even that wasn't a big deal.

We woke up bright and early and made some french toast and coffee over the fire while listening to Rend Collective.  We then did some more exploring and fishing, packed up, and called it a day.  

Everything went so smoothly, it makes me think it couldn't happen so well again.

The first camping trip is under our belts, and we can't wait to go out again next summer!