In an attempt to share our weekend's activities (without boring you to smithereens!) ... I will share with you some of our DO's and DON'T's of the weekend. (These suggestions are in no particular order, of importance or in sequence of events ... just as they come to mind.)
Saturday morning ... notice the warm clothes :) |
DON'T get exasperated when your kids refuse to put on the warm pj's and socks you encouraged them to pack. Even though you have about 30 years of experience in camping and you are "Mom" ... don't add to the night-time, super-tired crankiness. Encourage them to stuff the warmer clothes in their pillowcases and then try not to say a word when they come out in the morning all bundled up.
DO make some tentative plans for the day ... there is nothing worse than your children moaning about, "there's nothing to do". However, this weekend Brett and I remembered that we spent most of our camping trips pre-kid doing exactly that - nothing. Sweet, sweet nothing.
Tree-climber Aaron, half-way up the tree. |
Aaron's reading "Calvin & Hobbes" and Norah's doing school work, big surprise! |
DON'T watch the clock too closely. We found that we still kept our basic schedule ... give or take 30 minutes. The bonus of having lots of activities going on and kids constantly moving is an early bed-time. Our kids were wiped out on Saturday evening and we had very little trouble getting everyone settled down ... and it didn't take long for us adults either!
DO check the weather before you leave. It would be a memorable weekend (for all the wrong reasons) if you ended up in a down-pour all crammed in a 4x4 foot tent .... for the weekend.
DON'T change all your plans in the face of a few sprinkles. We knew going into the trip that Saturday's forecast called for rain in the afternoon. We figured that was at about nap time and we would all be down for a bit anyway and we could lay low until the clouds passed. The only glitch to that fail-proof plan :) was that the rain came in the morning - while we were at the park. We saw the clouds moving our direction and when we started feeling the sprinkles we headed back to camp. It was still just misting when we got there, so we decided to set up our other smaller tent to act as "the family room". Aaron & Norah actually worked side-by-side to get that one up with just a little help from Dad. Then we loaded the tent with our activity books, blankets and some snacks and water. It was a fun time to hang-out, listen to the rain pitter-patter on the tent, read, munch and we even wrote a letter and made pictures for our Compassion child - some real togetherness time! I wouldn't want to spend the whole weekend that close, but it was a highlight to the weekend.
DO take the time to study nature. For our "city" kids, we don't often stop and explore even our own backyard. But ... when everywhere you look you see nature (actual quote from Aaron, "There is a lot of nature here.") it's almost impossible to not be amazed by what you see. We took a number of little walks (many on our way to the potty) and the kids would get so excited when we would see a new bug. We borrowed a nature pack from the Visitor Center (something else we would recommend doing) and included in the bag was a journal to jot down notes, some nature books on bugs, birds and flowers and two little, clear bug-boxes to catch and examine the creepy, crawly creatures. Many of the bugs we were unable to catch (those dragonflies are speedy!) but that didn't stop us from crouching down and inspecting them. We found grasshoppers, a praying mantis (trapped in the pop machine ... oops), dragonflies, moths, butterflies and rescued a plump caterpillar from the middle of the road. We also made a little friend in Timmy the Toad who liked to hide along the edge of our tent. Liddy followed him around and around saying, "mah".
Hanging out in the "Family Room" ... listening to the rain. |
DO take the time to study nature. For our "city" kids, we don't often stop and explore even our own backyard. But ... when everywhere you look you see nature (actual quote from Aaron, "There is a lot of nature here.") it's almost impossible to not be amazed by what you see. We took a number of little walks (many on our way to the potty) and the kids would get so excited when we would see a new bug. We borrowed a nature pack from the Visitor Center (something else we would recommend doing) and included in the bag was a journal to jot down notes, some nature books on bugs, birds and flowers and two little, clear bug-boxes to catch and examine the creepy, crawly creatures. Many of the bugs we were unable to catch (those dragonflies are speedy!) but that didn't stop us from crouching down and inspecting them. We found grasshoppers, a praying mantis (trapped in the pop machine ... oops), dragonflies, moths, butterflies and rescued a plump caterpillar from the middle of the road. We also made a little friend in Timmy the Toad who liked to hide along the edge of our tent. Liddy followed him around and around saying, "mah".
Looking for Timmy ... hope we didn't squish him! |
"mah".
DO pack some yummy food to eat while camping. There is something wonderful about eating food outside that you cooked outside. On Saturday we enjoyed cinnamon rolls warmed up over the fire with hot cocoa, PBJ sandwiches at lunch and hot dogs roasted over the campfire for dinner. We followed that up with s'mores and roasted marshmallows ... sweet sugary goodness! Sunday morning I made pancakes and we topped them with sliced peaches and syrup ... and hot cocoa in case breakfast wasn't sweet enough!
Norah savoring every gooey, sticky, sugary bite. |
DO enjoy your trip to the fullest and make plans to do it again soon.
Sweet Liddy on the way home ... zonked out! |
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