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.

Fall River Camping Trip

We went on our first camping trip in Roy this past weekend and had a blast.  Can you really call it camping if you can take your bedroom, kitchen, and most importantly, bathroom, with you?  In the past I would have said no way, but I've been converted.  I'm just not cut out for tents and open air bathrooms anymore.  I think that means I'm getting old, but really, I don't care.  Even with a few RV glitches, we had a really great time.

"What kind of glitches?" you ask.  Oh, you didn't ask?  Too bad, I'll tell you anyway.

Glitches like a CD player that can turn itself on at random times of the day and night, like at 3:30 in the morning.  Glitches like a propane sensor that we thought was a carbon monoxide sensor that kept going off on our first night there, which prevented us from running the generator that night, which prevented us from running the heater that night, which left us at a chilly 47 degrees by Saturday morning.  Glitches like a real carbon monoxide sensor that decided to go off the second night, at about 12:30 am, which prevented us from running the generator again, except this time, we realized we can run the heater without the generator.  This information would have been very helpful the night before.  Can you tell we're RV rookies?  At this point, both sensors have been violently carefully removed from the trailer by way of wire cutters.  Don't worry, we'll replace them...maybe.  Is warmth more important than carbon monoxide poisoning?  Hmmmm, I'll have to think about that one.

Laci did pretty well on her first camping trip.  She finally remembered how to sleep Saturday afternoon.  Too many dogs, people and quads kept her awake most of the weekend.  She's always afraid she'll miss something.  She's at the in between crawling and walking stage and she just wanted to be down on the ground most of the time.  I wouldn't have minded the dirt, except she wanted to eat it.  I actually wished she could walk, until I remembered I would have to chase her then.  At the rate she's going now, she probably will be walking by our next trip.  Laci got to go for a ride in the Rhino and loved it, that is, until she fell asleep.  She's still not too sure about quads, though.  Silly baby - what's the difference?

It has been about a year and a half since Ryan and I have been camping.  I really miss it, it is one of the things that brought us together.  With his crazy summer work schedule though, camping is a rare occasion for us.  I'm really hoping we can squeeze in another trip before the overtime starts, but I fear this one trip might be it until Fall.  At least he was smart enough to take off two days after our trip as well.  We needed the two days to recuperate from all the fun.  We spent all day yesterday in our pj's just hanging out and doing laundry.  Today, Ryan is out mowing the weeds that seemed to have grown two feet while we were gone for the weekend.

Camping has taken on a new look for us.

I think I like it.

Too cute...and I think she knows it.

"How do you turn this thing on?"

"Why do you keep pointing that thing at me?"

"Is this really necessary?"

"Hi Aunt Deena. 

I think you're really cool. 

Especially with this really cool mug you have. 

Let's be friends."

We ate lots, as usual. 

 Why does everything taste so much better in the mountains?

Mmmmm...S'mores.

Happy Cousin Evan.

Not so happy Cousin Evan.

We did lots of this too.

What are we doing?

Staring at the fire, telling stories, doing nothing.

Isn't it great?

Two of my favorite camping things:  Fire and Ryan.

Fire is cool.

Yeah, I'm a pyro at heart.

I can't help it, I think it's genetic.

I love it, except for the smoke smell that permeates everything.

I wish fire didn't have smoke.

Then it would be perfect.

So, was I even there?

As usual, I spent the weekend behind the camera.

Oh wait, there is ONE picture of me:

Tending the fire.  Go figure.

I'm disappointed I didn't take more pictures while we were there, but it isn't always convenient to have a camera strapped to your neck.  Especially with a grabby baby around.  And I forgot my camera when I rode around the mountain with Ryan.  Bummer, because the scenery was much prettier around our campsite than in it.  More pictures next time, for sure.