First camping trip!

We went camping with the girls for the first time ever the first weekend of April.  I was very unsure of how it would turn out, but overall, it went very well.  The weather was great (pretty chilly at night, breezy and perfect during the day) and the kids ran around like little crazy happy people.  The tent was so novel! They easily spent 30 minutes running back and forth after each other, or rolling up in the screen flap door.

 

We shooed them out to set up sleeping bags and whatnot and they inspected the campsite, anthills and all.  The chairs were great sources of fun, even though that pink chair is in our back yard every day. Then it was time for a hike while the men started a campfire.

 

 

Charlotte was obsessed with singing, "Following the leader, the leader, the leader..." from Peter Pan (her new favorite movie).  The stick she's carrying in half the pictures was usually slung over her shoulder, just like John from Peter Pan when he leads the Lost Boys.

Paige is not in many pictures because she was almost always strapped to my back or slung on my hip or over my shoulder.  Unfortunately for all involved, she was mostly a miserable baby the whole weekend (and preceding week).  Let me just say:  I HATE teething!  Even with ibuprofen to take the edge off (pun intended), she wasn't happy anywhere but mommy's (aching) arms.

On the way back to the campsite, we watched some silly horses roll around in their pen, then went to check out how the fire was coming.

See the giant blaze?  It took some coaxing, but we were able to cook dinner.  It really did turn into a fair-sized fire after dinner.

Charlotte was poopered out after her first day of wilderness adventure.  She didn't even bother to eat s'mores.  (Well, really just marshmallows and Hershey's bars because I forgot the graham crackers.)  I guess she hasn't realized that's the best part of camping yet...

Mommy was poopered after her first night of wilderness sleeping!  Paige was nicely contained in her pack-n-play, but Charlotte was a sleeping bag thief.  When I came into the tent, a couple hours after the girls fell asleep, I found C rolled up in my sleeping bag, like she had grabbed the foot end, held on, and rolled towards the head twice. I moved her back to her side, but a lot fat of good it did!

We gave Charlotte the only cushioned mat we had to put under her sleeping bag, but she rolled around soooo much that by the middle of the night she was completely off of it and onto my sleeping bag.  She tossed and turned and "snuggled" with me - by snuggled, I mean hit, smacked, and kicked, not to mention random times of fluttering her hands all over my face like a blind person. I'm definitely not going to volunteer to sleep with her any time soon!

The next day was very relaxed.  We went on one last hike, then headed home, to our soft, soft beds.