Camping: Take 2

After our first disastrous, and very wet, attempt at camping in June we decided to give it another go. Friends of ours were going to a camping rally at a nearby campground and invited us to go along. They even had an extra tent we could borrow since we haven't sealed the leaky one yet.

We headed up a little after noon and got settled in. We met up with our friends and decided it might be nice to take a little hike. Their teenage daughter and son came along with us. We headed out and took a little nature trail that had several signs pointing out interesting things about the forest. The trail was nice and relatively flat so we could let Erin and Jeffrey just run ahead. They got very excited about the signs, but not so interested in what they said.

At the end of that trail was a waterfall spur. The hike to the waterfall was a little under a mile but relatively steep. Since there were 4 big people (5 actually) and 2 little people we decided it would be worth taking the hike to the waterfall. Jeffrey walked mostly with Mr. Jonathan and Erin headed off the trail a little ahead of everyone else. After a long week at school it was apparent that she really just needed some Erin space. We stopped part way down to splash a little in the stream. At the bottom of the hike we found a wonderful waterfall. The kids climbed around (holding hands) the rocks at the bottom of the falls. Jeffrey proceeded to get his bottom totally soaked but hey - he had an entire hike back up the mountain to dry out.



By the top of the hill both kids were being carried and hiking back the nature trail they were dragging pretty hard. Back at the campsite we insisted on some quiet rest time. Erin headed to her little pink tent with her kitty and my MP3 player. Jeffrey sacked out on the mattress in the bigger tent. Erin stayed quiet for about 30 minutes and Jeffrey eventually crashed. After Erin came out we played a game of Uno and then she and Tom went down to socialize and play with the other campers. I hung out at the campsite while Jeffrey rested.




By dinner time (they were having a pot luck) I had to wake Jeffrey up - always a bad idea. It took him almost 30 minutes to really wake up and stop being a grump. All he wanted was his Miss Kim (his babysitter) so he hung around with her for a while. Dinner was nice and everyone chatted together. During the middle of dinner 2 large bucks just wandered through the campground stopping at the site across from ours to graze around. It was amazing that they were just there in the middle of a large crowd of people not 10 feet away.


As it got darker everyone broke out glow sticks/necklaces etc.... The next hour was filled with little kiddos running around waving their glowing sticks, sword fighting, throwing them in the air. Erin and Jeffrey had a blast with this.

Tom had to drive me back home for church Sunday morning, so he brought me back late Saturday night. I did get some campfire time and lots of fun watching the kids play. They got to hang out and make Smores while Tom was out. By the time he got back they were definitely ready to crash. All 3 of them slept in the borrowed tent.

Sunday morning Tom and the kids made breakfast and hot chocolate -- and served them up for the whole campground. Then they went for another short hike before packing up and heading home.

Tom was so glad that both kids had such a great time. They spent most of Sunday catching up on sleep but it was worth it to see them having so much fun doing something that means so much to their daddy.