Camping With Kids

Skyline Drive on return home.

A worn out CRW after he passed out during dinner.

Afternoon quiet time coloring.

The wagon providing a nice nap spot for Lilly.

Sophie snuggles up to Christopher after an afternoon at the pool.

The wagon ride back from the pool.
Christopher mid bounce on the bouncy pillow.

Christopher showing off his catch from the pond.

The highlight of the trip: the campfire. Christopher fell asleep in the chair on Saturday night while watching the fire.

Christopher being a big help with setting up camp.

We finally did it! We "roughed it" with kids. Well, sorta roughed it; we camped at a Yogi Bear Jellystone Campground in Luray Va. but I'm going to say it still counts. We went with a group of friends on Memorial Day Weekend. Ryan has never been wild about the idea of camping so close to other people. We are used to back woods camping where there isn't a soul for miles. So being on top of one another takes some getting use to. But after this weekend, we realize that this style of camping works for the phase of life we are in. That is: the busiest, craziest and messiest phase of life; one with young kids! The campground had a pool (absolutely necessary in 90 degree heat), a bouncy pillow, playgrounds and a pond. Every couple of hours there were organized activities like crafts, concerts, dance parties and fishing tournaments. Things went very well. Lilly fell asleep every night easily on the bed in the pop-up. We never used the pack-n-play, she stayed put until I joined her later in the night. Ryan and Christopher slept on the other bed. Christopher absolutely LOVED camping. He played hard and slept hard. He even fell asleep at the pic-a-nic table Sunday night during dinner. He just fell backwards with his eyes rolling back in his head! Luckily Ryan was there to catch him. We learned a few things on our maiden camping-with-kid trip:

1. don't feed babies a huge pancake breakfast then push them on swings, things tend to come back up!
2. Nap the kids later in afternoon when they are so exhausted their bodies don't have a choice but to pass out and the heat has backed down. This way they wake later and can stay up late for campfire. If they don't nap, be sure to pad the ground around them in case they pass out like CRW.
3. We need a screened room with ground turf on our pop-up. Lilly really needed a "safe zone"
4. Forget #3, we just need a bigger pop-up!
5. The wagon was worth its weight in gold. I think we put a few miles on it just walking the kids from point A to B. It also worked for nap-on-the-go with Lilly. Also, I bought a canopy for our wagon when we returned home, gotta watch that sun!
6. Book site early enough so you are close to your friends. This way we can enjoy evening festivities while the baby sleeps in camper close by. We procrastinated when we booked and were a 2 minute walk from our group.

In all it was a FUN trip. We took our time coming home via Skyline Drive. We stopped and had a picnic lunch and soaked in the scenery. It was a great weekend and I can't wait to camp again!