We survived!  It felt a little like I was on Survivor, but we made it through two whole nights of camping!!! 

I have to admit that I didn't know that we would.  A couple nights before we left, BW set up the tent in the backyard so we would know how to set it up at the campsite.  The kids begged to sleep inside and BW & I were drawing straws to see who had to sleep outside with them.  After tucking them in, BW & I came inside and within 30 seconds, Girl4 said she was too scared to sleep there.  She wanted to sleep in her own bed.  We tucked her into her own bed and went back to talking.  In a little while we heard screaming and yelling coming from the backyard.  BW went to check it out - A neighborhood cat had found it's way through one of the tunnels that wasn't sealed off and came into the tent!  Between that and the noise of the traffic(thank God for double pained windows!), it was decided that everyone would sleep inside for the night.  After this incident, I had my doubts that we could become a camping family.

After weeks of planning, days of packing, BW began to pack the car.  He came inside and told me that he didn't think everything was going to fit.  I didn't say anything, but pretty sure I gave him a look that said "Make it fit!"  As you can see from the slide show above, there was not room for a single extra thing. 

We arrived at the campsite and were given options of what sites were still available.  After checking them all out, we opted for the large campsite next to the bathrooms, deciding that with 4 kids 7 and under the convenience was more important than the lack of privacy. 

As BW began to set up camp, we quicky realized that camping with the almost 2yo was going to pose the greatest challenge.  So someone needed to be on Little Boy duty at all times.  This often involved taking him for walks to keep him busy.  Being 23 months and doing a lot of walking, his little legs gave out pretty quickly and he would stop and say "huggie" and we would have to pick him up and carry him on our shoulders.  I soon found that I am out of shape (time to pull out those exercise videos again). 

As far as meals go, I learned a few things.  Everything I read stressed how important it was to freeze your meat.  Well, the first night I learned that you should freeze everything but the meat you plan to eat on the first night!  I also think we may be investing in a camping bbq before the next trip.  I did manage to make spaghetti and stir fry for dinners and pancakes and french toast with bacon for breakfast. 

Boy6 had a rough day the second day.  Within 15 minutes of getting to the beach, he was climbing on a rock, slipped, fell into the water and a wave pushed him back up against the rock.  Fortunately, I had thought to pack a small first aid kit with bandaids that made him feel well enough to start making a sand castle.  He never did go back into the water.  Then after dinner that night, as I was washing dishes, I heard (as did the rest of the camp) a loud scream.  We managed to figure out that he had been stung by a bee on his neck.  I pulled out the stinger as BW held him still and I was pleased that my large first aid kit had some kind of sting wipes which made him feel better - and we now know he's not allergic to bees!  But he was still ready to go home - until I reminded him that we couldn't pack up the tent in the dark and if we left now, we couldn't have french toast(with french toast bread) in the morning.

Sleeping proved most difficult on Boyalmost2.  He didn't like being in the pak-n-play much and had trouble falling asleep, both at naptime and through the night.  Both nights he ended up sleeping with me - my little sleeping bag warmer.  The other kids enjoyed sleeping in the tent and I have to admit it was a joy to hear their giggles coming out of the tent after we put them to bed.  The only problem they had was when their flashlight/nightlight ran out of batteries in the middle of the night. 

Overall, it was just beautiful (see slide show for pictures) and we all had a great time.  We enjoyed some great hiking trails and walking over to the beach throughout the days.  They had some great tidepools and we were able to find hermit crabs and parts of lots of sea animals.  On the hiking trails, we identified some poison ivy, found lots of lizards, bunnies, squirrels and saw a deer.  We also learned from one of the trail boards about how to identify whether a snake is poisonous (the thought that he might see a snake on the hiking trail didn't make boy6 want to go hiking too much).  We went to watch the sunset over the beach one night - What a miracle God's creation is!  How anyone could think that it all just happened randomly is beyond me! 

And probably the biggest blessing is that we were only 45 minutes from home!  We were able to get home, unpack and do laundry before dinner (where we hit the new In-N-Out Burger in town - cooking just sounded too exhausting to me). 

So, I might be converted into becoming a camper after all - maybe just once a year...

-J