Well it was more like a 16 hour camping trip. A spur of the moment and poorly thought out camping trip.
We love camping but hadn't gone since before Hyrum was born. The week after the 4th of July Derek's work shuts down for a week so we thought we'd try it that week. Then as things came together for that week we decided that the best day to do it would be Monday ( even though as it turned out Derek worked on his first day off ) Throughout the day I packed as much as I could in our small car which filled up all too fast. I began to simplify. When Derek got home we packed the last few things and headed up the canyon to a campground only 12 minutes away.
It was a beautiful campsite
We put our tent on one end of the campsite (nearer to the bathrooms) and there was an adorable slow moving babbling stream at the other end of the campsite. Even though Hyrum usually wants nothing to do with water I didn't want to risk anything by putting the tent near it. It felt so good to be camping up in the mountains and trees.
We got up there around 6 and I started the coals right away for our hobo dinners while Derek and Hyrum got to putting up the tent.
Hyrum was BEYOND excited to get into the tent. We were setting up the rain fly and staking the guide wires when I told Hyrum not to run around the tent anymore. I looked up to see him get close lined. :( It shocked him but it didn't sour him on camping. He loved it.
I went to put the hobo dinners on the grill and realized that we had nothing to turn them with. Awhile later Derek decided that they needed to be in the coals to cook. We ended up using Derek's leatherman to get them out of the coals. And we had a periodic tastes of charcoal. Yum.
It got chilly at night so I bundled my boys. I couldn't resist the opportunity to get my chubby Noah into the cutest little hiking boots known to man.
We were just beginning to start the fire for roasted hot dogs when Hyrum informed us that he was sleepy and wanted to go to bed. We hustled to get a hot dog on the fire for him. From then on it was a blur of gobbling down food getting dinner cleaned up while we got boys in jammies and in bed as the darkness fell.
I hadn't thought of how I was going to sleep with Noah and ended up sitting in a sleeping bag in a camp chair. I was sure I'd be able to sleep but as it turned out got little to no sleep. Instead I snuggled Noah in the sleeping bag and kept him warm and free from the risk of suffocation. Funny thing is that I was more rested getting a couple hours at most in the mountains than I am getting 5 or 6 at home.
My boys seemed to have been invigorated by the mountain air and woke up chipper...minus poor Derek who was thinking about taking down the tent again already.
But in the morning we were greeted with this happy dirty camping face. (This is what Hyrum does when you say "Smile" now.)
I think we have a camper!
Next time we'll be better prepared but I don't know if we'll go again until Noah is sleeping through the night and we have a mini van. :) And we'll plan to stay longer too.
3 comments:
Harrisons said...
Totally agree with the hiking boot assessment. Made me laugh out loud. You are so very brave! We were just discussing today how kids take all the fun out of camping. A whole new experience. Way to stick it out.
Pam said...
Now you have to camp on Lake Michigan up by the bridge. You will all love the beautiful blue water. Sounds like a good start to family camping. Yea!
Three Men and a Janie said...
Was the last time you went camping the time you took your Neon up to Dutchman's Flat? That was a good one. We drove it a few weeks ago in our truck and could hardly believe you made it all the way up there...