that one time we went camping this year

For the first time in three years, we went camping last weekend. I admit, it's more like "trailering" than "camping" these days, but I wouldn't have survived more than half a night in a tent. Four days and three nights would have been out of the question.

It was dirty, smoky, not so warm. We made s'mores, Laci ate half a bag of marshmallows by herself, we skipped rocks.  Laci learned to cast her fishing pole by herself. Mia was not allowed to drive the Jeep alone. Luckily for her, there was an abundance of little drivers willing to take her for a ride. The girls were filthy 99.9% of the time, and loving it.  They also had disgusting, dirty noses, which is sort of an issue with me, but I lived. Laci found her inner pyromaniac (makes her momma proud).  And Mia learned to say "fire" and "dirty" very, very well.

I learned Mia does not sleep well unless she's confined to her crib, so the pack n' play was put up after the first very terrible night of non-sleeping. The kids had a great time and didn't understand why we couldn't live in the trailer forever. Clearly, they do not remember actually living in the trailer.

Now, prepare for many, many pictures of my filthy children.

 Mia fell asleep on the way there.  She knew she'd need to gear up for a trip like this.

Laci insisted she would not fall asleep.  After more than two hours wide awake, she almost conked out about fifteen minutes before we arrived.  Almost.

That's my girl.  And now expert kindling collector.

 Miss Mia and her chauffeur, Cousin Evan.

 

 Daddy showing the girls how to skip rocks.

 Filthy Mia.

 Laci can cast on her own now!

 

The light was so pretty, I took about a billion pictures. 

Then I got the great idea to take a picture of Ryan and the girls.

You can't just waste light like that.

And I got this.

And this.

The Great Stick War of 2013.

Oh well.

 Kids proving once again that you don't need much to have fun.

Mia, Evan, Laci, and Sydney.  All ready to go home.

I'm sure there are many memories I've already forgotten from our trip.  I hate that.  I wish I could remember all the funny, cute things the girls did, especially since it was Mia's very first camping trip.  I will remember she fell down the stairs in the trailer twice, and she didn't once consider that she might be too little to do anything.  And Miss Laci, this was her second camping trip, but her first one as a "big girl."  A big girl who would rather play with her cousins than her momma most of the time, but she still needed her snuggles before bed.

I didn't spend half the night drinking by the campfire like in the old days. No, I went to bed when the girls did.  Not only because I forgot to pack the baby monitor, but because that was as late as my body wanted to be up. It was a bit of a different camping trip than I remember, the first of a new era of camping for us. And I'm okay with that. Because of Ryan's summer work schedule, it will be our only camping trip of the year, so I'm glad we made it work. I only wish I would have taken a few more pictures of all the kids, and maybe a picture of myself. Because I was there, too.  No really, I WAS.