Thursday, May 21, 2009

A Night in the Woods

A few weeks ago I took the kids camping overnight with some friends of ours. Owl Poppa was working, and to be honest, he is not overjoyed at the thoughts of packing up our stuff to go to the woods and pretend we don't have a house. So, it was just me, the three little owls, and another family.

I used to camp alot as a kid, and it is something I always wanted to do with my children. I had great dreams of hiking through the woods, teaching the kids about nature, cooking over a campfire... ahhh, memories. But, like I said, Owl Poppa... well, not so much. My awesome artist friend Brendy was kind enough to share her family camp out with us, and to overlook how neurotically nervous I was about the whole deal :) I just really wanted everything to go well, both for me and for the little owls.

And it did! YAY! With help from Brendy's husband, we got the tent pitched, got gear unpacked, set up camp. We took the kids to play in the river, cooked dinner over the campfire, made s'mores, and spent our first night sleeping in the woods...

which is much harder than I remember it being. First of all, all four of us were sleeping in a 7 x 7 tent. And it was hot. And quiet. I had alot of trouble falling asleep. There was the racoon in the middle of the night who was trying to open our coolers (which had to be moved to the cars). There was the guy a few campsites down who kept coming and going on his motorcycle. Then K's eczema was super bad that day (before we even left, not due to the trip) so she scratched and itched all night long. And W is still nursing over night, so there was that variable to consider.

But we made it!!!! We were up before 7 am, excited at surviving our first camp out! (I think the other campers were not so excited about us being up SO early) After a yummy camp breakfast, we packed up and spent the day relaxing by the river.

I could say more (of course) but I'll just leave you with a few cool pics from our trip:


Isn't this place beautiful?

J doing what J does

My water baby, W

And of course, J and K with their first S'mores!

5 comments:

  1. Way #25 of how your husband is like me and you are like my husband.

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  2. aaaawesome, I love your new background. Kudos to Dawn! And I think it needs to rain more so the water level can rise some at the river.

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  3. I SAW YOU ON WENDY'S BLOG!!!!!!!!!!! That was awesome! Check this one out. www.smittenkitchen.com

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  4. Melanie, thanks for the new link! And it was awesome, wasn't it? *wink*

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  5. Looks like a fantastic time! Luckily, in our house, we all like to camp, but with my man constantly on call, it can be a little tricky.

    Also, thanks for stopping by my blog. Glad to meet someone else with similar idiosyncrasies. ;)

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