Camp Trip

Yesterday morning Beckham woke up at 5:30. Since it was too early for Parker (and me) to wake up, I brought Beckham to my room to feed him so Parker wouldn't wake. Well, about 15 minutes later Parker came in and crawled up in bed. I had just laid Beckham on my chest to sleep for just a bit longer so I tried to lay still and quiet so Parker would fall back asleep. Instead he snuggled me and we whispered about random things...while I of course would have liked to go back to sleep, sometimes these are the moments I'm glad that I get to stay home this year. 

One of the things we were whispering about was our plans for the day. Usually when I ask what he wants to do, he says "play" as if I didn't already know that! Clint had evening plans already so I knew I would be with the boys all day and night. To break up the routine, I tried to think of something out of the ordinary. First I though we could head up to Lake Michigan but when I saw the weather forecast had rain in it and I thought about a 3 hour drive...I said nope. Then I thought about how I had mentioned to Clint that I wanted to go camping this fall but we didn't think there was time because we have a busy October. So I asked Parker if he wanted to go camping and of course he instantly said "YES!" We went once last fall and he mostly remembers it. He loves the outdoors and hiking and tents, so I knew it would be fun.

So we got out of bed just before 7 and had breakfast and made our to-do list. First I cleaned the house up, loaded the dishwasher, and started some laundry. I couldn't leave the house a mess if we were taking off on a trip! Then we got dressed and pulled out the camp gear that we'd need. Then we were off to Meijer to get some camp food! We got everything packed up and headed to McCormick's Creek before 11!

Since Parker woke up pretty early, he fell asleep on the way down there...and I was glad since we would probably stay up late and do lots of things. I didn't want him getting cranky!

We pulled into out campsite right about noon. I asked if he wanted to eat lunch first our put up the tent. He was all about putting up the tent! Luckily Beckham was still asleep! Parker was a really good helper with the tent and we had it up in under 15 minutes! Then we blew up the air mattress, made the bed, and got out the rest of our supplies. Then we had lunch and Beckham woke up.





As I fed Beckham, Parker explored our site and collected sticks for our fire later. We hung out for a little bit and then Parker was ready to go hiking! 

We headed out just a little bit and I reminded Parker that if he got tired I couldn't carry him since I had Beckham in the carrier. So of course 2 steps later he said he was tired and his legs hurt! Oh lord. Well I convinced him to walk a little more and we found a huge staircase down to a creek. All of sudden Mr. Tired Legs was full of energy and zipped down the stairs! I'm not kidding when I say there was probably 100 steps. We reached the creek and Parker wanted to walk across on the rocks. So we did that and then came back. He zipped up those stairs so fast! So much for being tired. Buuuuut of course once we reached the top he was tired again. 

I managed to get him back to camp without falling apart! We stopped at the bathroom and I ran into my only real problem with camping solo...going to the bathroom. HA! 


 Later we started our fire and Parker was super excited about that! To make this trip easy, I bought some Duraflame logs. Srsly, who has time to start a fire from scratch with 2 kids??  We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows and they were scrumptious!






Beckham went to bed about 7:30 and minus one little crying fit when we tried to cook our popcorn, he was a breeze on this trip! 



So we bought one of those popcorns that you can cook on your stovetop. First I forgot to take the cardboard off. Second the baby started crying. And last, it caught on fire. So the popcorn was burnt :( This was the only thing that brought tears on the trip and I'm pretty impressed! He only cried a second and then he saw a few kernals pop once we opened it up! We both tried one and instantly spit it out! Bleck!






Once it got dark, Parker was so excited, yet again! He turned on our 2 lanterns, put on his headlamp, and went back to looking around the camp. We sat around the campfire for a little bit and then he said "I'm ready for bed!" Anyone that knows Parker knows that he isn't one to go to bed! I tried to convince him to sit with me by the fire for a bit but he was set on going into the tent and getting on our jammies. So we did. 

I thought it would be much cooler once it got dark but it was still pretty warm. I had originally put Beckham in a sleeper and his swaddle but he was sweating! So he slept in just a sleeper on top of a blanket in his rock and play. Parker had some warm jammies and I had planned to wear my warm socks, pants, and two shirts. Well, I was too hot once we got in bed so I just wore a tank top instead of an extra shirt. 

Beckham slept pretty well for being out in a tent. He went to bed about 7:30 and woke up at 1 and 5. At 1 it was a little chilly so I put his swaddle back on him and he fell right to sleep after I fed him. At 5, he had one hand busted out of the swaddle and it was cold but his head was warm. I fed him again and he went back to bed. I snuggled up to Parker and we slept til about 7. 



Once Parker pried me out of the tent, we started a fire and had breakfast. Once Beckham woke up at about 8:15 we hung out for a bit then started cleaning and packing up. 

Once the ride home I could tell Parker was tired! He went to bed about 7:45 tonight so I'd say our trip was a fun success! I'm so glad we went!

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