Well, that was exhausting! Someone remind me next time I want to introduce my 2 and 3 year old to tent camping not to do it with 50 ten year old boys and 30 adults. It was total chaos. The camp out was a family camp with Anthony's Boy Scouts troop. There were lots of parents but only a handfull of siblings and none as young as our girls.
Makenna ended up being a total princess. She couldn’t sleep on the “ard” ground so instead she ended up sleeping laid out over me and Brad the first night causing us to get little to no sleep. Hailey hated being in jeans and was upset every morning that she couldn’t put on a twirlarina dress. Friday we were able to compromise by letting her wear her gold sparkle slip on shoes around the camp, Saturday it was a bow in her hair and on her shirt and Sunday it was leggings instead of jeans. Some battles weren’t worth it.
Saturday morning at about 9am both girls were in total melt down mode from not having slept well the night before and my patience were running thin. Not a good combo with 80 people mulling about. So, since camp was only about 20 min’s from home, I took the girls and headed home for nap time. Unfortunately, neither napped very well and the shower didn’t perk them up as much as I’d hoped but we were determined to keep trying so I drove them back to camp about 3pm. They went on a hike with Brad and had a great time for that 30 min’s but right about sunset, Makenna was a total mess. The boys were trying to do skits around the fire and tell jokes and no one could hear because of Makenna’s whining. We tried stuffing her full of marshmallows and smores but that only gave us a few moments of peace until the sugar rush added to the chaos. Opps, didn’t think that one thru. After 30 min’s of screaming in the tent, we finally got her settled down on the air mattress that I had to inflate at home and drive up the mountain for the princess. The boys were running off their sugar high using their glow sticks as light sabers so we finally fell asleep at about 10:30. Makenna woke up at midnight screaming like a howler monkey again so Brad and I extricated her and Hailey back to the car and I drove them home again.
Back up the next morning after a seriously strong dose of coffee, we packed everything up and enjoyed watching two perfect princesses helping, being kind and happy campers. Ugh! Luckily, Grannie and B-pa offered to let the girls stay with them for the afternoon so Brad, Anthony and I could get some rest before family dinner Sunday night.
See, exhausting!
The highlights?
Driving my new car!
The other major highlight was Anthony.. He made me so proud several times. He was a great big brother, trying lots of different things to make the girls happy, coloring with them, chasing them around, showing them interesting plants or bugs around camp. He even picked up another “little sister” who fell in love with him and followed him everywhere. He was the first boy to jump in and help during his den’s KP duty. He volunteered to sleep on the floor in his sleeping bag giving me his cot. It was also encouraging to see him surrounded by his peers out in the wild. It helped convince me that he is not an alien just a typical 10 year old boy.
Anthony cuddling Hailey by the camp fire early in the morning
Coloring with the girls
Brad and I both really enjoy camping and grew up doing it so it's important to us that our kids have the same memorys but sheesh, maybe we need to wait just a bit longer. I think an adults only camp is in order to make up for not getting to cuddle by the fire, lay under the stars, wake up to nature not screaming.
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