Over 4th of July weekend, we went camping for the first time. Although it pretty much rained the whole time, Colin and Holden LOVED it. They thought everything was great, the tent, making hot dogs, playing in the dirt, throwing rocks in the river and the marshmallows - oh the marshmallows, Colin loves marshmallows.
We went to a campground called Gold Basin out on the Mountain Loop Highway. We got there Friday afternoon after a late start. It is only an hour’s drive, but it took us almost 3 hours because we had to stop for rain gear for the boys, then 2 minutes later Colin had to pee, then 2 minutes after that he was hungry and immediately after that he had to pee again (although this time that was a clever ploy to go in the gas station to see the ice cream display.)
There was a break in the rain while we set up the tent and the rain tarp over the picnic area. When we got there a sketchy guy and his big dog were practically sharing the site with us, but luckily they left a couple hours later and no one camped there that night. There were enough breaks in the rain that we could be out and playing. Plus we were under the trees so most of the time the rain wasn’t that hard.
Liam in his garbage bag rain suit:
We made hot dogs and roasted marshmallows. Ian started the fire and Colin must have asked him over 20 times whether it was ready or not. Once the fire was ready, he stuck his first marshmallow in it, burned it and from then on made “smores” like this:
Two pieces of chocolate and an uncooked marshmallow. Holden decided he only liked graham crackers so here is his “smore:”
We had brought the pack and play for Holden to sleep in the tent. Going to bed didn’t go so well, he woke up a few times and Colin kept talking in the tent. Eventually he slept until about 4 AM when he stood up and said “Maaaamaaa” in a really sad voice. At that point I was freezing and uncomfortable so I grabbed him, but then I had to use the bathroom so I passed him over to Chuck. I told Chuck I wanted him back when I got back in the tent because I was cold, but when I got back in Chuck said “Ok, if you want to disturb him” which really meant he wanted to keep the little heat ball. I said fine and then told Colin to get in bed with us. So all 4 of us slept on the half full air mattress for the rest of the night.
On Saturday we drove a bit to find a good hike for kids and then decided on the Old Robe Trail, which used to be a railroad track. Colin hiked almost the whole thing, including the pretty steep switchbacks at the beginning. Holden also walked by himself for about a half mile to a mile. It was the first hike either of them had done and they loved it. I was very proud of Colin, he complained a bit about all the uphills on the way back, but he did a great job all by himself.
Saturday afternoon we didn’t do much, it rained pretty hard and Holden would not nap. For dinner we made some pasta and ate under the tarp in our rain gear. The boys went to bed really easily that night and slept all night long - it was great. Colleen, Ian, Chuck and I actually got to play cards until Liam and Holden started to cry a bit - to the dismay of our new neighbors.
Sunday morning we got up, made some breakfast, played a bit and then cleaned up the whole camp. Neither Chuck nor I had a watch on so we had no idea what time it was, but when we got in the car and saw it was about 8:30 I could not believe it. I thought it was around 10:30 or so. We were home by 10 AM and the boys were beat:
We had to dry everything out, we had pretty much been wet and everything was damp for 2 days straight. Sunday afternoon we all took 2 hour plus naps, which were definitely needed.
