Camping

On big thing on our summer bucket list was going camping! We hadn't been since Claire was 2.5 and we still lived in California. Both times we went camping in California (one on the beach and one inland where it was warmer) it was a sandy experience. I was looking forward to a green, grassy experience this time. We thought about renting a pop up tent, but since we don't have a hitch on our van yet, we chose to go tent camping. We got a nice 8 person tent when we were in California and we thought the kids would love the experience. I searched and searched for a great camp site - somewhere the kids could swim and enjoy other fun outdoor activities. I found the Jellystone campsite, but it was going to cost us $180 for two nights...to sleep in a TENT! Craziness. Then I found the Eagles Peak Campground near Reading, PA. It is 2.5 hours away from our house, which is further than I wanted, but it looked PERFECT! Grassy tenting sites, 2 pools, a playground, daily family activities, mini golf, boating, etc. And better yet, it was only $35 a night! Score! We were excited to book our camping weekend. We were blessed to have perfect weather that weekend too.

The kids saw us preparing - putting up our tent to make sure it was ok, gathering our camping gear, buying a few more things, buying the food for our weekend, and the endless packing. They were excited, but Claire didn't remember camping, and Maddie hadn't a clue what it really entailed.

Chris fortunately didn't have to work the Friday we left. We would have left earlier, but Claire had her last day of VBS (which she LOVED!) But because he didn't have to work, he got to go to the little performance for the last day! Here's a little clip of her singing her favorite song that week. It's adorable, and Maddie likes watching it too - singing along and doing the motions. :)

(Claire's best friend from that week was Cooper. He's in the blue shirt on her right. So cute!)

After that adorableness, we got on the road and headed to PA. We got the campsite, set everything up and got camping!

We enjoyed burgers and roasted marshmallows that night. Mmm! Chris actually discovered the yummy version of s'mores made of striped shortbread cookies with a roasted marshmallow in the middle. YUM! The chocolate is already built in! One of my favorite moments of the weekend is when the kids were wandering around the huge grassy area discovering. They discovered a chrysalis (or so Claire said), bugs, and my favorite, fireflies! They were ridiculously excited about the fireflies and came running to us so enthusiastic about this new discovery. This is one reason I'm so glad we took them camping!

Maddie looking at the bugs on the ground.

Amelia wasn't a fan at staying on the blanket. She got quite dirty crawling around, but when you're camping, who cares!

Sleeping wasn't great, which is to be expected. Amelia slept on my arm all night. Maddie got up in the middle of the night, crawled around to my side of the air mattress which was next to the tent wall, and totally freaked me out. I thought there was an animal rummaging around right outside! I was confused when it was Maddie. Haha. The next day we got up and enjoyed a yummy breakfast over the fire - toads in a hole and bacon!

That morning we drove around the campground a bit, took the kids for some craft making, drove around the beautiful countryside (Amish country), and then went swimming! The kids loved swimming of course. Chris sat on the side of the pool for a while before heading back to our campsite to make lunch.

Maddie's favorite thing to do in the pool is jump off the ledge into my arms.

(Claire was there too, but she jumped in with her puddle jumper and apparently wasn't in good range to get good pictures.)

We enjoyed a tasty lunch of hot dogs, chips, carrots, and grapes, and then went for a drive. I knew Maddie and Amelia really needed naps, but didn't think I could get them to sleep in the hot tent. We were all going to be miserable with their grumpiness if they didn't get a nap, so we went driving around some more. Soon, all three kids were sleeping, so we headed back to our camp site. We enjoyed the peace and quiet for a while until I saw Claire stir. Chris and the little two stayed in the car to sleep while Claire and I slipped away to go play. They have giant blow up water slides and only Claire was old enough to go on it. Unfortunately, after getting to the top of the slide, Claire was very scared to come down. I tried everything to get her down (and in the process went down a couple of times myself. :)) Eventually, they told me, though it's not usually allowed, to just put her on my lap and come down. Claire was not a fan. There was a smaller slide that she decided she would try, and she did go, but she wasn't a fan. I, on the other hand, had her wait for me at the bottom while I went down the largest slide. So fun! I could have done that all afternoon, but alas, Claire wanted to swim instead. So we went to the adjacent pool and had fun swimming together. When we went earlier in the day, I was so busy taking care of Maddie and Amelia, that I didn't get to swim much with Claire. So, this time, we had fun just the two of us. Quality time is really important to Claire, and she loves to have some special one on one time. I was grateful we got that chance.

After swimming, we went back to the camp site where Chris was with the kids who were now awake. We decided to get a snack and go play mini golf before we started the fire for dinner and the evening. It was 18 holes, but we did maybe half of them. The kids don't really play the real way, but they LOVE to go and hit the ball around. We had gone once before in Shenandoah and they had lots of fun.

This was a first for me - playing mini golf with a 24 lb baby on my back!

Once they were tired of playing, we left to go play horse shoes! I had been wanting to play horse shoes all summer, and here was my chance. I don't know why I like to play so much, but I LOVE it, and hadn't played in years. The kids played in a near by gazebo while they patiently waited for Chris and I to play a game. (He beat me by one point.) Then we headed back to our tent to light the fire and make tin foil dinners. Mmm. One of my favorite camping meals.

That night we enjoyed the camp fire, let the kids stay up late again since they all got naps, and enjoyed the nature around us.

The next morning we enjoyed more toads and a hole and bacon. (My family LOVES bacon.)

This thing was PERFECT for feeding Amelia while camping. 

We picked up our camp site, and were on our way home. We stopped at church on the way home (we were a bit scraggly at church, but we tried!) and unpacked when we got home. Phew! It was a lot of work, but so fun! Chris and I aren't hard core campers. Two nights in a tent is just about right for us, but it was so worth it! Here are a few reasons I think the hard work was so worth it:
1. Giving the kids freedom to roam and open space to play.
2. Watching the kids discover nature.
3. Stuck having family fun together all weekend - no distractions.
4. Delicious food! Food cooked over a camp fire is quite tasty.

We had a wonderful time, and plan to go camping again this season. The kids LOVED it!

That night, I invited our friends to come over for dinner. They were moving to Utah and were leaving on their cross country trip the next morning. It was a little crazy cleaning up from camping and then making a dinner for 11 people, but I managed to find the energy to do it and made one of both of our family favorites - chicken pot pie. Mmm. I was so glad we could have them over one last time (we had gotten together at each other's houses a couple of times in the last year and our kids were friends.) They are an awesome family and will surely be missed, but I'm excited for their adventures ahead of them. We got a picture with all the kids and with us together. Sniff.

It was a great weekend with so much fun packed in!