Camping with the Kiddies

Last week we went camping. This is a monumental thing because though we had planned going several times, we never quite managed to go. To make it a little more pitiful, we have owned our tent for about 5 years and have never even taken it out of the bag until this camping trip.
The weather is getting cooler, the leaves are changing and I sat down and sort of told my HC that we were going camping. Ian had the 16 and 17 off from school for something called "Fall Break," which I wished we had when I went to school. My HC has Wednesdays and Thursdays off, so we decided to take Ian out of school early on Wednesday, go to the campsite and come back on Friday in time for HC to get to work at 4.
We were so excited to finally go! There was a tense moment when we discovered that our unused tent instructions had somehow gotten wet and the pages all stuck together. Trying to unstick them resulted in ripped, unreadable pages, so I had to call the toll free number and have the nice ladies email me another copy of the instructions. Then we packed everything we could think of, including both of our dogs, borrowed a trailer, got Ian and headed to Arkansas.
It was very foggy, even at 1 in the afternoon, so the ride to Devil's Den (about an hour), was uneventful.

We got everything set up and Ian started his cycle of "Oops, I fell in the creek again." From the time we stopped the car until we left, Ian had wet shoes and socks draped around the campsite drying out.


Then my HC started on his Manly Quest for More Firewood and I got baby detail. And doggy detail. And drying soggy shoes and socks detail. But it was so beautiful. That night it was cold, but everyone slept like happy rocks.


On Thursday we decided to go on a hike to see the actual Devil's Den, which is a cave. There are also several sister caves with names like Devil's Ice Box, etc.

There was a very misguided park ranger who informed us that we would have no trouble with the bike stroller on this trail but clearly, he was wrong. My poor HC ended up carrying it a good bit of the way, especially on the half of the 2 miles where only a thin mountain goat would fit.
Ian loved running around and looking over ledges. I lost at least a pound on my racing heart alone as he fearlessly explored. Berry accompanied him a lot, but managed to fall in between two rocks and get stuck, so he was watched a little more closely after that. Buddy plodded along, I'm sure almost comatose from the altitude or exercise or something. Either one, when we got back to camp, he lay down and didn't move for over an hour.
We saw gorgeous mountains and rocks and caves (2 bats!) and were really really sore when we got done. Poor HC still has a sore knee from wrenching that dumb stroller up and down that mountain.
We decided to take it easy that afternoon. We saw the dam and the creek and the extension bridge. We roasted our hot dogs and brats for supper after HC collected a small plateau of firewood.

We also had lots of marshmallows. We heard some splashing in the creek after dark and HC spotlighted some deer walking across (right there!!) to the other side. We were tired and sore and went to bed.


Then it got COLD. Everyone did okay until about 2am. Then Erin woke up, cold and grouchy. She didn't want to be in bed with us. She wanted to be warm and in her
own bed, thank you. I took her to the nice heated camp bathrooms, but there was too much light and she was wide awake. I sat there dazed while she ran all over the bathroom wide awake. At about 3:30 I went back to camp and walked with her, hoping that she'd drop off. I heard an owl and some howling coyotes, which was interesting. She fell asleep until I went back into the tent (all those noisy zippers!!), then started the wailing again. I was tired and frustrated. I woke up my HC (isn't it amazing how guys can sleep?) and told him the situation. "I'm cold and Erin's cold," I told him. "I cold too," Ian chimed in from his little bed with his mound of sleeping bag and blankets. After more crying (Erin) and shivering (everyone else), we decided to call it a night and pack it up.
It was so nice to get home to our heater! The next morning, Erin greeted each individual toy with a peppy "Hey you!" and Ian slept until 9 (Erin slept in, but still woke up at 8). For the rest of the weekend we goofed off and played and recovered. :D



So looking back, our first family camping trip was great. We will be going back in the spring, when it's warmer, to camp some more. Camping with the kiddies? It was....educational. But fun.