Ok. It's time. I must write about our very first camping experience with two 20 month old girls two weekends ago. It has taken me a week and a few days to recover.
(And if I can ever get Blogger to let me upload pics, I promise there will be pics to add!)
It started with our packing for this one overnight trip taking a full 5 hours. Yes, it took 5 hours to pack for our one overnight trip. This really isn't anything new for our packing standards, but it still seemed like a long time. By the time we loaded up the car with 1 twin jogging stroller and a red wagon and 2 pack-n-plays and a tent and our suitcase and the girls big diaper bag and our cooler and our several bags of food and 2 blow up mattresses and, oh yes, us, we had loaded 2 cars. Yes, 2 cars for our 1 overnight camping trip that was only 30 minutes from our house.
When we arrived at the campground, it was absolutely beautiful. Nestled at the foot of a lake, our campsite was surrounded by several other church members - this was a weekend church camp out, I must add. We set up our tent to find it huge enough to not only house BOTH pack-n-plays, but both blow up mattresses and plenty of room for suitcases and our food.
After 2 hours of unpacking and setting up the tent (7 hours total between packing and unpacking and setting up), we then spent the next few hours chasing the girls around. Chris held a beautiful baptism in the lake which, thankfully, was easy for me because they allowed us to put them in their jogging stroller for this event.
Then night began. The real night. The "let's try to put the girls to bed" night. That's when reality hit. There were lots of others out there on the campground also trying to go to bed. Sometimes my girls cry before falling asleep. This night was no different. It was soooo hot first of all...soooo hot. Camping weather I am definitely not used to. Savannah decided to start crying in the tent, and wouldn't stop unless I was holding her. Standing up. Only me. I couldn't trade with Chris, I couldn't sit down to let my back rest, had to stand. For at least an hour. Maybe 2. If I laid her down, screaming again would ensue and all I could think about was how loud it carried through the beautiful campground, out across the lake, and back! About 2 hours after we had first attempted sleep, she crashed. Madeline had already crashed. I crashed.
Then I awoke in the middle of the night to another loud cry followed by a "Sissy!". Jumping up, tripping over everything in the tent, I made my way to the pack-n-play, patted a back, got her back to sleep. Then I awoke shortly later to another loud cry in the middle of the night. Jumping up, tripping over everything in the tent...you get the picture. This went on a few times throughout the night. Thinking of all the nearby campers, I was dying.
Early, early morning came and I heard one of the girls stirring. Then I heard a tiny little voice say "Shisshy? Shisshy?" I grabbed both girls, snuggled with them both, and continued hearing tiny little whispers saying "Shisshy?" to the other. Wow. These girls sure do love each other.
The daylight of the morning came and for the next 12 hours, our day was filled with running after the girls, putting them in their wagon, letting them play on the playground, trying to feed them lunch, running after them again, laying them down for a nap, letting them play some more. Naptime was the best. Chris was down the hill having church with the church members when I checked on the girls who had just woken from a late morning nap. There it was. A HUGE granddaddy long leg climbing up the Pack-N-Play. What to do!! I stood there, looked down the hill at Chris, stood there, looked down the hill at Chris, and finally made my way slowly out of the tent and waved my arms at Chris. Once I finally got his attention and told him what was wrong, well...slightly annoyed may not accurately describe him, because, after all, it was only a granddaddy long leg. But not to me!!!! He got a break, we switched, I ran down the hill to the service and he ran up the hill to get the spider. I am just not a spider person. Nope. Not even a harmless granddaddy long leg. What am I doing camping.
Besides the bugs and spiders that I of course knew all about, I had been warned of the fact that the girls would be running wild throughout the campground, but thought I could handle it. I/we did...but were exhausted by the end of the day. It took over 2 hours to pack up the car, breakdown the tent, load everything up, and finally hit the road. Not sure about the "1 night only" part being such a smart move, but we did it.
And boy....oh boy....were my girls DIRTY. I had never seen so much dirt under ten little fingernails, and such dirty little feet!! By the time we made it to the bathtub that night, it was full out dirty water that had to be changed before the real bath could begin. We are all 3 such girls....not excited about all that dirt. :-)
That night the UT Vols were playing an incredible football game. Chris and I both fell asleep at half time, only to wake up later to a pretty bad defeat (on our part). But, the point is - we fell asleep just as the game was (we thought) getting good!! College football - Tennessee football - my very favorite time of year and I couldn't stay awake to watch the 2nd half of the game!! Exhausted. Two exhausted mommy and daddy's who aren't sure we'll try that camping thing again for a while with these two until they are a bit older.
But, we did make lots of good memories. Hopefully I can post pics of some of those later.
