Camping!!

I finally have a few minutes to post about our camping trip. We were all very excited about the trip until a few days before we left when I started to wonder if we were crazy. I mean come on, a three-year old and a 6 month old in a tent? For three days? All my worrying was for naught... we had a great time!

We got into Park Rapids on Friday afternoon about 5:00. Josh dropped the kids and me off at the hotel where my friend Berit and her family were staying and he went on to the park to set up the tent. The kids swam (even Tate!) and it was nice to have time to talk to Berit and Emil. When Josh returned we went out for dinner which is an interesting thing with three small kids. :) After dinner we went out separate ways. They went to their hotel and we to our tent. It was dark when we got to our campsite, but we set up the lantern and were ready for lights out soon after. The first night was quite chilly; I'd say it got down to about 50 degrees. Because it was so chilly (and I'm paranoid), I woke up every 20-30 minutes to see if Avery was still covered up and if Tate was staying warm enough. Avery was coughing quite a bit and wound up in our bed for a few hours. At about 3 AM, I thought Tate was getting a bit chilly so I shifted Avery back to her bed and brought Tate in with us. Needless to say, I didn't sleep much. Josh, meanwhile, slept like a baby and didn't realize there were even kids in bed with us. That's okay though, because he got up with Tate at 5:30 to feed him and Avery and I got to sleep a bit more.

Saturday morning Berit, Emil and Mathia came by the campsite with breakfast and the kids got to play at the playground for a bit. I wish I could've taken more pictures of the girls playing together, but my camera lens broke sometime before we arrived at Itasca; it would only take photos of objects far in the distance. I was frustrated, but it meant that after Berit and Emil left we could head back into Park Rapids and buy a point and shoot camera that I've been wanting for a while.

So, Berit and Emil left at 10:30. I figured we could get to Park Rapids (25 minutes away), buy a camera, a pan (to cook our eggs the next two mornings), eggs (we'd forgotten them at home) and a few other things we thought would make camping easier. Long story short, Tate got hungry just before we left, so we fed him (45 minutes); Avery had to use the potty (10 minutes), I had to change (5 minutes), and we had to get the pickup loaded up (5 minutes). We didn't even get out of Itasca until after noon and because everything takes longer with two kids, we didn't get back until 2:30. We tried to get Avery to nap when we got back, but napping in a tent when you can hear other people outside is tough. We opted to walk to the headwaters of the Mississippi River instead. It was a 4.5 mile walk (round trip) on hilly terrain. We're not used to the hills and pushing a double stroller uphill is a challenge (or at least it looked challenging... Josh did the hard work). The effort was well worth it; both kids napped on the way there and the scenery was amazing! When we got back to the campsite we made dinner (burgers and beans over the fire and fruit). After dinner we sat around the fire and made campfire apple pies. Bedtime came early and we all slept like babies that night.

Josh got up and made a great egg breakfast Sunday morning. After we fed Tate, showered, and got ready to go, we headed to the bike rental shop. We had gone back and forth on whether or not to rent bikes, but decided to try it. We rented two bikes and two bike trailers; because Tate can't sit up on his own, we had to put his carseat in the bike trailer (yes, it was safe... it was the bike shop's recommendation). With a carseat in a trailer, there is no room for another child. So, my hope of Josh having a trailer with both kids and me getting to ride alone didn't really pan out. If you've never biked with a trailer behind you, you won't believe me when I say that even pulling Tate was a lot of extra work. Between the hills and the added weight of Tate, the trailer and the carseat, my legs were shaking after only a few miles. We had fun though. We biked up to the headwaters (and walked across this time), stopped at the snack shop to get Avery a snack, biked back to our campground, and back to the bike shop. We had the bikes for 1.5 hours and biked maybe five miles because we had to stop pretty frequently. I'm glad we hadn't rented them all day because the kids wouldn't have handled it well, but it was a fun way to travel within the park and fill up a bit of the day. The rest of the day we just hung out at the playground and the campsite. Our scary lesson for the night happened while making dinner... a man from the neighboring campsite came over and started making small talk with us. He seemed like a nice enough guy, was camping with his wife, and was from the same town as us. In the course of a five minute conversation, we'd discussed where (which neighborhood) we lived, our occupations, even where Avery goes to daycare (I know, BAD move!!!). He'd shared the same info with us so we hadn't thought anything of it. After he headed back to his campsite, Josh and I discussed what we'd just done. We had never been in a position where we'd given out so much personal information before and both of us were a bit freaked out by the whole thing. After lying awake thinking about it for awhile, I decided that he could get all the info except Avery's daycare just by searching the internet. It's a scary time to be raising kids! Back to dinner though...dinner was sandwiches over the fire and we had smores for dessert... yum! Sleeping was okay after I finally fell asleep- I spent quite a while worrying about our encounter with our neighbor.

Monday we woke up and Josh tried to make omelets in a bag. We did something wrong and they didn't turn out, so we decided to walk up to the headwaters and get muffins. Avery was so excited about muffins. Luckily, she fell asleep when we go there because the cafe didn't open for two more hours. She woke up halfway back to the campsite and was irritated because she didn't have a muffin; she also had to go potty and there were no restrooms in sight. Avery had her first wilderness bathroom experience. There are photos (thanks, Josh... I'm sure Avery will appreciate that when she's older!) but we'll spare her dignity. :) After getting back to our campsite we played at the playground for a bit and packed up to head back to our house. We stopped in Park Rapids for pizza and were back to town by early afternoon.

It was difficult for Avery to be so off her schedule (read: numerous temper tantrums) but she had fun for the most part. Sleeping in a tent was fine, but there were times when I felt a bit awkward disciplining Avery in plain view. We don't spank or yell, but when we're in a wide open area like that and Avery misbehaves, I feel judged. I'm guessing every parent feels like that. We definitely appreciate the privacy we have at home though! All in all, we had fun and are hoping to camp next year too. It will never be an every weekend think for us, but we had fun and will try it again. With a kid who will likely be crawling next summer, it might not be quite as easy... we'll wait and see!

I'll post more pics later- have to get ready for a night out with my husband now!