Camping

Our small group from church this spring semester really clicked and we decided we wanted to try going camping this summer, so we did!  It was a ton of fun.  It was a lot of work.  I've been camping before, but not since having kids.  One of the families had never been camping before, but everyone was a good sport and I think we all had fun.  Here are some highlights:

 Fire!  Macie loved building a fire.  She looked forward to the fire all day long.  I'm willing to bet it had something to do with the smores she ate, but still, she would wake up in the morning and say 'fire now?'

 Here is a general picture of our campsite.  It doesn't show everyone.  But we really brought most of the comforts from home.  One couple even brought memory fo.am for their air mattress.

 Here is Macie enjoying hot chocolate.  It was adorable to see how much she liked it.  She had a sip of one of mine last winter, but this was the first time she had a cup all to herself.  It took her a week to stop asking for it (and although she knew it was hot chocolate, she enjoyed pretending it was coffee like momma and daddy drink).

 Sleeping was a bit rough.  My brilliant brain thought that we should bring the pack and play for Penny and then have Macie and I share an air mattress and dh have his own air mattress (they are double bed sized).  EPIC FAIL!  The first night Macie could not get comfortable.  She tossed and turned and climbed and flipped,  this girl was a mess.  She kept me up most of the night (although I had a dream so I got some sleep somehow that night) and was in a terrible mood the next day.  No nap, no sleep at night = awful!  So that night we decided to put her in the pack and play and Penny in her carseat.  The morning after that, Macie looked at me when she woke up (after sleeping peacefully all night) and said, "that was a cozy bed".  So yeah, apparently Macie isn't ready to give up her toddler bed any time soon.  Poor Penny.  The little sister without a bed.  Although she was swaddled before we put her in her carseat, but being the awesome child she is, she slept all night in her carseat just fine.  So after the first night we all did get some sleep.

 You can't quite see Penny on the ground in front, but there were actually two other babies that are just one month older than she is camping with us.  They were naping and we didn't want to wake them up for the picture.  But what was so much fun about this camping trip, was having playmates for Macie.  Camping with just our little family of four would be so hard compared to camping with a friend.  So I now understand why parents allow their children to bring a friend on vacation with them (and will sometimes pay).  To Entertain the kids!  Give the parents a bit of a vacation as well!  Ha.

And here is Miss Macie hading to our tent.

Probably the most iconic image from our trip is Penelope in her washtub.  Poor thing, this was COLD water.  She had a blowout and we saw no other alternative.  It's not on our bathroom wall.  Her pain has turned into our art.  We were fast about the bath though, but how cute, right!?