More Camping

We went camping at Huntsville State Park again this past weekend. JDog joined in on the fun this time. It was nice being able to pass off the job of Chris' helper monkey to him :) He got to help him hook up the camper, back it into the site, and set it up. Oh, and he made the mistake of asking Chris if he needed any help before we left on Friday. Chris handed him the manual and told him to figure out how to sanitize the water hook up paraphernalia. And then the kids took turns asking him to play and walk and ride bikes. We got good use out of him.

We got some kinks worked out and had water in the camper this time. The potty wasn't as stinky either. We managed to bring everything that we needed and the entire weekend went off without a hitch. Well, except for Robert on the second night. He was beyond tired and when it was time to put him down, he went ballistic. I was attempting to wipe him down with a baby wipe and he started clawing at his chest trying to "get the soap off". It was scary. He has scratches all over his chest from that little freak out. We left him in just a pull up and Chris finally got him calmed down and he fell asleep in his arms.

We got him into bed and he woke not long after, screaming. We figured out he was probably having a night terror because he was completely out of it and could not tell us what was wrong. Screaming fits of rage and night time at a state park do not mix, so Chris got him into the car to drive around. He got pulled over, Robert still screaming like mad. Of course, Chris didn't have his wallet on him, so no i.d. All he had was a screaming, half naked toddler strapped in his car. The officer found two of Robert's cars sitting on the back bumper, so it was obvious Chris had been driving veeeerrrry slowly through the park. Chris explained what was going on and he asked Chris to roll down Robert's window. He said something to Robert and Robert screamed in his face. The guy was like, "Alrighty then, carry on." Ha! He eventually came out of it and Chris brought him back, awake and calm. He went right back to sleep and slept the rest of the night. So, note to self, Robert needs naps when we're camping. If not a nap, then at least a normal bedtime.

He woke happy and ready to go the next morning. Here they are the first morning with their hot cocoa.

We went down one of the trails in search of a letterbox. Clara brought her walking stick and Chris found one for Robert. He was such a little toot that morning. He wanted to do the exact opposite of whatever we wanted. You want me to go down the trail? Nope, I want to get back in the car. What's that, it's time to go you say? Heck no, I'm staying and heading back down this trail. The stick helped convince him to walk with us for all of about 5 minutes. A game of hide and seek in which Clara ran ahead a ways and hid behind trees worked for a few minutes too.

Our first letterbox!

Letterboxing is like geocaching. You follow directions to find a hidden box. Unlike geocaching though, there is a notepad and stamp in the treasure box. You have a family stamp that you stamp on the notepad and write a little note and then you add the stamp from the letterbox to your journal. We were a little disappointed to find that someone hadn't put it back in it's container. It was just in a ziploc bag next to it and the notepad was soaking wet, so we couldn't add our stamp.

Just a little further down the trail we found our second one. We'll definitely be finding more letterboxes.

That night the kids had fun running around in their headlamps and we enjoyed smores by the fire that JDog built.

This picture doesn't do Robert's dirty face justice.

Clara searched high and low for a friend and she was excited when Carly, who is also in 1st grade and had no other older kids with her, showed up at the campsite next to us on Saturday. Carly was a little, um, pushy, but they had lots of fun scootering around together all day. Sunday morning she started shouting down the road, begging me, "Can I pleeeeeeeeeeeeeze keep Zoe? Puleeeeeeeze? Why not? Puleeeeeeze?" After telling her nicely about five times why she couldn't have my dog, I resorted to ignoring the child.

A cold front came through and we woke to temperatures in the 60's on Sunday. We noticed that the leaves had started falling on Saturday afternoon. Seriously, we didn't see any leaves dropping that morning, but by afternoon, the sky was filled with them falling in the breeze. Autumn officially started on September 8th in Huntsville if you're wondering.

So we now have another successful camping trip under our belts. It's hard to venture back to reality when you enjoy such a relaxed, slow paced time out of doors. It's amazing how a mere two days feels like you've been gone a week. Next month we'll be venturing out of our comfort zone and to a new park.