We had been taking the kids camping for quite awhile. We were going to go Mother's Day weekend but it didn't work out so this weekend was the weekend. Cade and Kelson were counting down the days. The kids LOVE to camp! In our minds, we feel like it is one of the cheapest ways to take the kids somewhere overnight and the bonding time with them is much greater than if we just took them to hotels, museums, or amusement parks. When there are no electronics distractions on our part or the kids you really get to play, talk, and understand them. Besides, what child doesn't enjoy rolling around in dirt for 2 days! Mom and I went grocery shopping Friday morning to get the necessary camping food. We ran into a couple of friends from our ward. One saw us getting hot dog buns. He asked if we were having a cook-out. I told him no we were going camping. His reaction, "Camping? Real camping? Like with real tents?" I assured him it was real camping but with a bathroom facility close by. He was a bit shocked we were doing this. We walked around getting the rest on the list and ran into another friend and he had the same reaction, almost identical. Do people not go camping anymore? Cheeto got off work early, Cade got out of school early and we headed south to Badin Lake Friday afternoon. Cade tried his hardest to convince me to check him out at 9am. That's how excited this boy was to go camping. I said 2pm- we compromised at 1pm. Papa and G'ma Arellano went to get him since the school is extremely close to their house and then they headed over to help finish loading kids. We did have to wait a few minutes for Daddy to get home but the kids were fine with that.
Analise slept all the way there, while the boys were playing the "are we there yet?" game. The way the GPS took us had dirt roads the last 5-6 miles. When the campground check-in guy (I have no idea what his official title is) came by he asked us which way we came in and apologized we had to come in on the dirt road. Both Mom and I looked at him and assured him that that was one of the nicer dirt road we have seen. And continued to tell him that both of us grew up on farms in Idaho and dirt roads are a way of life there. He chuckled and understood then why the roads didn't upset us too much. We had a single site, which we thought was going to be to small but ended up enjoying it like that. We pitched the tents and canopy and started the fire. By this time the kids were starving and it had started to rain off and on. Thank goodness we had a canopy. We are getting this camping thing down pretty well. We cooked the dogs and cleaned up when we decided it was time to go exploring a bit.
We got back to camp and played some games and such until it got dark for smores. We all love making smores! I got a phone call from my little sister. She asked if I was at home, I told her we were camping. She asked, "Camping? Like real Camping... with real tents?" I assured her it was real camping. She then asked, "Do people in the south really know how to camp?" I told her that camping really wasn't a western invention. Funny girl! I wish I could've been paid for each time I had this conversation. Wow!
I started placing sleeping bags in the tent. It wasn't too long before I realized that our tent doesn't fit all of us anymore. We asked Papa and G'ma if Cade could sleep with them. They were happy to do it. We kept Analise and Kelson with us. The shared one sleeping bag and body heat to keep them warm. Analise struggled a bit at first to get to sleep. She kept talking to Papa and G'ma from inside our tent. Papa at first kept answering. Cheeto had to tell him to be quiet and to ignore her so she would go to sleep. I woke up at 1:30am having to go to the bathroom. If any of you know me well enough, you know that I have a huge fear of the dark, even inside my own home. There was no way I was going to walk to the bathroom by myself. An hour later Cheeto offered to walk with me but I felt bad asking him to do that. I sat there for another hour or so weighing my options. Mom said she would just always go just outside of camp in the bushes if she ever had to get up in the night. I didn't really want to do that either. I had brought diapers for Analise and had to laugh at myself to think that I was that desperate. Of course, I would have never done that! I just forced myself to sleep and tried to ignore my bladder growing bigger every minute. Finally at 5:45am I decided it was light enough outside that I could walk myself. :) How pitiful am I?
Of course, when you go camping everyone is up early. We were making eggs and bacon by 6:15am. Cheeto fought getting up as long as he could. Mom and I started the fire and got the ball rolling. Chemo insulted us by asking if we really had a fire going and if we could see actual flames. Come on Dad.... do you really think that the women couldn't start a fire? We did just fine! Kelson even said it was better than Papas! :) He might have been just trying to suck up too. We did go to girls camp for crying out loud! We cleaned up camp and got most of the stuff packed up. Everyone but Mom decided to go for another hike. Analise ended up riding on our shoulders most of the time, which was fine with me. She is still so little and close to the ground that I didn't really like that she was rubbing up against every leaf and bush as we walked. There was a tree had fallen into the water that all the boys had to walk out on. Dad got nervous and actually fell in. It gave us all a good laugh. Bummer for him- he had to walk all the way back with wet socks, shoes, and pants. Dad's balance is not what it use to be. I was nervous with him holding hands with the kids as crossed tree bridges and such. Cade and Kelson did really well on their own. Just before Papa fell in he had Cade out there. He was holding Cade's hand. He started to wobble some and it almost looked like he was going to take Cade in with him. He says it was Cade that was wobbling- but both Cheeto and I say that Cade was doing fine. It still is fun that Papa would come play with us.
We got back and headed home. Analise was asleep before we even got out of the campground. Camping is exhausting. After we got home we unpacked and did a tick check. We were all clean but Dad wasn't so lucky. He had to go to the Urgent Care and get an antibiotic. Mom had brought this bug cream that she took to the Phillipines that I rubbed on all of us. Mom used it as well. Dad was the only one that didn't use it. I hope he learned a lesson and uses it next time. We all crashed the rest of the afternoon. After sleeping 3+ hours we all were in bed by 9ish, well, Cheeto wasn't. He never goes to bed early. We had a blast! I hope we can get one more trip in before it gets too hot. The boys are going this weekend for the ward father-son campout. No girls allowed! I'm sure the girls will hang back and do something fun!
Funny Kid Quote of the Day
Kelson found himself a good walking stick as soon as we got there. He carried the entire hike. Towards the end he was getting tired of carrying it. I then showed him how to use it as an walking stick. He said, "Mom, you only have to do this when you get really old. I'm still little. I don't need to do it like that!"
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