Camping

We went camping this last weekend just up big cottonwood canyon. It was "Condo-camping" meaning that everyone was right on top of each other in the campground, but we thought that it would be good for a one night adventure, close enough to home if we needed to be with all the kids. It was The first time I've taken a baby camping since I took Ali when she was a little over a year old.. that experience was terrible. Megan was 3 before we took her camping. It might just be another two years until we take Mathew again too!

My brother Craig and his family came too, that made 10 of us all together. The camp site that we had was actually not a bad one and we had quite a bit of 'forest' on one side of us for the kids to explore. The kids spent hours playing in the swampy area of woods, and they were close enough for us to keep our eyes on them but far enough away to feel like they were on their own. They 'fished' for tadpoles, and other living things.......

of course it was inevitable that one of them would have a mishap and of course it was our dear Megan who just after dinner was "just walking by the water" when her flip flop disappeared in the thick muddy muck. Taylor looked for 30 minutes and it was no where to be found. Poor Megan had to go shoeless for the rest of the evening. Daddy was nice enough to let her borrow his shoes to go potty... Megan wasn't too happy about the whole thing.

Mathew felt like such a big boy running around.

It wasn't as relaxing having to chase around a 1 1/2 year old the whole time, but he sure enjoyed it.

Poor Taylor, he took a chunk out of his already balding head!

We had terrific food though.. Merry brought Delicious Cesar salad for dinner and watermelon. Yum.. for breakfast we made Eggs, and sausage in tortillas. Food always taste so much better when you're camping.. no matter what it is!

so our biggest problem was trying to get Mattie to sleep. He normally does not sleep anywhere outside of his crib to begin with so I knew that it would be interesting to see how he'd do in a tent in between all of us.

At one point he told us he wanted to "seep" and picked up his blanket and binkie and walked straight to our tent.. Taylor put him in and quietly stepped out and zipped it up.. We were all surprised until about 3 minutes later we all looked over to see Mattie's cute little face peeking through the walls of the window of the tent. we thought he might just lay back down until a few moments later we all looked again and there he was OUTSIDE of the tent zipping it back up and heading towards us in his dinosaur pajamas. It was so cute.

he was exhausted but was not giving it up, so Taylor and I took turns trying to rock him and soothe him to sleep.

It didn't work. We took turns playing cards with Craig and Merry.

By the time we all went to bed it was well after it had gotten dark.. We all climbed into our tent and tried to settle him down.. He kept hitting Ali in the face and giggling he was so hyper.. finally he settled down with me rubbing and patting his back. I imagine it was around midnight and he was finally sleeping but I was having a hard time because I was scared that we were going to smother him, or that he was going to let himself out of the tent. I lied awake for most of the night my feet frozen because I'd forgotten socks. When it was light I was wide awake really fearing that he'd wake up and let himself out of the tent to roam the forest.. so needless to say I got about an hour of sleep.. at around 7:30 Mattie was awake and I finally woke up Taylor and said "he's all yours!" It was still cold so Taylor decided to take him for a drive.. They drove all the way down to the house (really it was only about a 30 minute drive). Taylor picked up a pair of shoes for Megan and a couple of other things. . Taylor Said that Mattie slept all the way up the canyon. when they got back everyone was waking up and Mattie was content to play with his cars and trucks. Look at that Cheeser! He's such a ham!Taylor brought his hammock which became a total hit. The kids had a great time swinging in it. They ran around and took turns playing mancala.

I sat and watched "CARS" with Mattie while Merry made breakfast.. I was so exhausted I was barely staying awake.. This was all Craig's idea by the way...
We packed up and drove home and before we even unloaded the car Mattie and I went straight upstairs and took naps.. It felt great.

I don't think I love camping like I used to.. I understand now why most families have tent trailers or 5th wheels.. I would much prefer to get sleep and I'm sure Mattie would agree. The kids had a great time and I did love being up in the mountains enjoying the scenery..

We'll see how soon we go again.. for Now I'm enjoying my bed..

Here's camping as a whole.......... a little bit of everyone