First family camping trip SUCCESS!
We compared our busy spring schedules and decided on the last weekend in April to take a trip to Oklahoma's Lake Murray to go camping. When the weekend finally got here, the weather forecast was not looking ideal, especially going North, so we ended up changing our plans and heading to Cleburne State Park for the weekend. We crossed our fingers that the weather would hold up for at least one night.
We debated going tent camping with the girls or borrowing Justin's mom's camper for the weekend but ended up deciding on using the tent. Mom and dad would have their camper and we would set up a tent on the same camp site. We tried out the tent that Justin had stored but it didn't seem like it would hold up to rainy weather. Luckily we were able to borrow a tent from Justin's cousin that worked wonderfully. We packed up all the many things that we would need for the weekend away and headed south right after I could get home from school that Friday afternoon.
Testing out the tent!
Mom and dad had gone earlier in the day to get a camp site and were already set up when we arrived about dinner time. Justin got the tent set up and we started on dinner. Mom planned easy meals and the first night we just had hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill. And, of course, s'mores for dessert! The girls had fun chasing fireflies, drinking juice, and digging in the dirt while waiting for food to be ready.
Since they hardly ever get juice, it was such a treat having it all weekend!
Watching the grill before cooking dinner.
Helping daddy set up the tent.
Chasing & catching fireflies!
We had a fun first night. Bedtime was definitely a challenge in the tent. We let the kids just stay up as long as they wanted since we knew it wasn't likely they would just fall asleep right next to each other. But, it was still hard to get them to fall asleep. We ended up separating them in the tent so at least they couldn't mess with each other. It would have helped with the tantrums {mostly from Janie} if they had slept a decent amount at night but I really think the only thing that could really help them is age and adjustment to less hours of sleep. What worked really well is bringing their toddler mattresses and all their normal bedtime favorites {blankets and stuffed animals and such} that stayed in the tent for when they needed to rest. Once they fell asleep, it was great, just getting them to sleep was a challenge.
The next morning we got to go on a little nature walk after breakfast. The girls had fun looking for different "animals" {birds, insects, fish, etc.} and watching Pops skip rocks on the water. We played some t-ball and tried to fly a kite, too! After lunch, we were able to get both girls to nap in the camper in separate places. It required me to lay down with them until they fell asleep, but it definitely helped getting them both to sleep for a bit since we had late evenings! The girls helped with dinner when they got up and the rain ended up holding out for the entire day so we were able to make more s'mores after dinner! It did get pretty cool on Saturday evening, which I wasn't as prepared for as I would have liked, but between everyone's belongings we all stayed warm.
Cute family hiking picture!
A roly poly bug!
Watching for squirrels.
We LOVED eating s'mores!
Austin liked the girls' chairs, too!
Our last morning we were able to go on another hiking trail. It was quite a bit longer and the girls got pretty tired toward the end, but they had fun. We got to walk across the dam on the lake and see lots of wildflowers along the way. We were able to see the different levels of the spillway and Nora found a fossil along the creek. We did hike in pajamas to stay warm!
Finding treasures!
Nora's fossil find!
At the top of the spillway.
We found some bluebonnets to take pictures with - not many!
After our walk, we ate lunch and then had to get ready to head back home. The girls both took good naps on the drive home and had so much fun on the weekend camping with Mimi & Pops! They are already looking forward to camping with them again sometime soon. We think a spring and fall camping trip may become a new tradition!
