Camping

Our first camping trip alone as a family! We learned a lot of lessons to make it a lot easier next time!!!

Lesson 1 - reserve a site in advance! Now this wasn't totally our fault - like everything else in our life, it was kind of a last-minute thing! We didn't know for sure that we were going until that morning, and since it was Labor Day weekend, the place was pretty full! We ended up not having our own site, but sharing a large grassy area usually reserved for youth groups! It was fine, just a little difficult to find a spot!

Lesson 2 - leave earlier! We didn't get out of the house until after 4 pm and hit some awesome Chicago traffic - apparently we weren't the only ones heading north on Labor Day weekend. Weird, huh? It took us well over 2 hours to get there, and by the time we got to the site, found a spot, and began setting up, it was already getting dark! It is not easy to pitch a tent and start a fire in the dark, but we did it!

Lesson 3 - don't forget the chairs. It would have been nice to have something to sit on while roasting those marshmallows...

Lesson 4 - bring water to wash hands and brush teeth with.

Lesson 5 - don't pitch tent down-wind of the outhouses. No wonder that spot was still available...

Lesson 6 - time to buy some air mattresses! Those foam pads just don't cut it anymore! We must be getting old!

Hopefully if any of you are planning to take your first family camping trip, you can use this very good advice!!! But it was a very fun trip! Araleigh was so cute in the tent, she just kept exclaiming "I love camping, mom!!!" The kids had such a blast, putting up the tent, collecting firewood, cooking hot dogs and making smores over the fire, telling ghost stories in the tent!!! (side note for Julie- guess what I ordered from the kids' book orders!!!! Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark!!! and More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark!!!!! Does that take you back, or what????!) It was so fun to just watch the kids get excited and have fun!

The next morning we woke up with a family bike ride on the beautiful trail!

This picture was taken just moments before Jax took a nasty spill which shook him up so bad he actually went into shock and we were afraid he had a head injury!!! He kept repeating himself over and over, and couldn't remember what had happened and why his face and leg hurt so much! He scared us for a while there, but thankfully he was fine! It's sad to see how happy he was, knowing what was about to happen to our poor little guy :(