Camping (part one)

This will be the story about our first camping experience since school has been out.

I took us camping from Sunday through Wednesday the week after school got out. I figured it was a great way to start off the summer. And it was, but it wasn't without its own little misadventure!

We camped close by because I figured I could haul the trailer out there and back myself without being too stressed or causing too much stress. I also figured if we didn't have fun or the weather was yucky we weren't too far from home. So off we went.

My Honey came out and helped us set up on Sunday, stayed that night, went home and showered because he had to go to work. Me and the kids just hung out. They are old enough to go play (mostly) unattended. Bubba doesn't let Hannah get too far away and she keeps him in line so I let them wander from our campsite to the two sets of toys and a little to the water. I was cautious of the water. It's really high so the swim area is mushy grassy wetlands, mostly it feels gross underfoot so they weren't too interested.

On Monday night my girl DW and another friend from work joined us. They got a campsite across the park and unloaded their stuff then we all sat down for dinner together. Kind of. Between us we have 6 kids between 3 and 9 years old and we had an extra. DW had to run to the store and while she was gone chaos ensued! Somehow our dog got off her leash. No biggie, DW's oldest and her friend were on it trying to get her back, not that she went far! As that is going on the two littlest girls (3 and 4 years old) locked themselves in the camper from the inside. We were trying to tell them how to undo the lock (the red switch) but it wasn't working very well. Fortunately, some other work friends had arrived so I wasn't the only adult! One of them was helping with the dog and got her all taken care of. One was coaching the girls from outside the camper, another one was working with Bubba to break into the camper through the crawl spaces under the beds and yet another adult came to find me because one of DW's kids had crashed on the bike! He was wearing flip-flops and stubbed his toe which caused a crash and damage to his knee and elbow. We've all done it! And it only takes once. Pretty sure he won't be wearing flip-flops while riding a bike anymore! So all this happened in the span of about 10 minutes. It was crazy good. Luckily the burgers didn't burn :)

That night we were all going to crash at our site, all the kids in a tent, the adults inside, but it just ended up not working out. The two littles tried, bless their hearts, to sleep in the camper in the bunks, but it just didn't work out, meanwhile all the big kids were trying to do the tent which would have been okay except for the "spooky eyes" someone kept making at the more tender of the group. Needless to say everyone got split up and DW took part of her tribe back to their site, my kids ended up in our camper and the two oldest girls got the tent (which is probably what they wanted all along).  And my poor DW slept in her car because she was a good mom and left all the blankets and sleeping bags for the kids so she was cold. Not our best night.

We were supposed to stay until Wednesday, but I was so fed up after that night I packed us up and we went home on Tuesday, which actually worked out really good. I can't imagine working Wednesday night after one more night camping. I would not have gotten any sleep.

Speaking of work. I'm done with night shift for this year and let me tell you, it was the most disappointing night shift ever. Only because it wasn't busy at all. I loved my work peeps, but the hours sucked and it just wasn't worth it. My Honey and I talked about it, sounds like next year I might just work overtime on the weekend nights to get my fix. So, it's back to days... tomorrow.

All in all, our camping has been fun so far! And aside from the wind it's been nice weather too. I have a great start on my tan :) A few more weeks of work and then we are off again on another adventure!