RAIN!! Well, I survived the camping trip. We all survived our first family camping trip. Friday night we got to camp just before dark. We threw up tents, lit our lanterns, got everything decently organized and covered up, put Monkey Boy in the tent to go to sleep, and dropped the car off before the bottom dropped out. We knew when we got to camp it was going to be bad. There was lightning all around us and thunder. It was quite a thunderstorm, but it finally quit and we were able to go over to the pavilion that was at out camp site and visit with the other members of our pack. We put TV boy to bed after awhile and then, we crawled in the tent to see if it had leaked. We had so much stuff in our tent that stuff was touching the edges. And for those of you who go camping in tents know that you can’t have stuff touching the edge when it rains. The tent that Mr. Mag and I were sleeping in had some water in it, but nothing too bad. The kids’ tent had some water in it, but not as bad as it would get. It ended up raining more through the night. I didn’t get a lot of sleep Friday night. We brought an air mattress for Mr. Mag and me to sleep on. He had pumped it up for as and by the time we got back in the tent after visiting, we could tell it was leaking air! So by the morning we were completely on the ground and were laying on all sorts of things that hurt, which ended up being pine cones, sticks, and lumps of grass.
Saturday morning after not but a few hours of sleep, we got up thinking that we were all done with the rain like the weather man had forcasted. We started cooking eggs and bacon on our Coleman burner. We were all so hungry. We wolfed down what Mr. Mag cooked and then, it started raining! We quickly relocated under the pavilion and he started cooking the rest of the eggs and bacon. The weather was pretty socked in and we wondered if we would be able to do anything! We ended up starting our activities an hour late after eating sandwiches for lunch. We had 4 stations we went to; fishing, crafts, BB shooting, and Archery. Camp Lumpkin is very large and everything is spread far out. Monkey Boy traveled on Mr. Mag’s shoulders. Most of the trails were extremely muddy and slick. We were covered in red mud all day. TV Boy really enjoyed BB shooting and archery. While they were fishing it poured down, so that got cut short and we got really wet. The boys enjoyed having lots of mud to run through and puddles to jump in. Monkey Boy loved being outside all weekend.
After finishing all the planned activiites, Mr. Mag and a few other parents went repelling down a 40 foot wall. I promised to do it someday. I probably should have done it then, but didn’t. Mr. Mag loved repelling as a scout and it’s been over 10 years since he’d done it. He says it was like riding a bike. It came right back to him. It was the highlight of his trip. From there, we went back to camp and cooked hot dogs for dinner. We hung out and talked as the kids played. As it was getting dark, the dads got a fire going to make smores. I was exhausted from a busy day of hiking. The camp was very hilly, which caused my muscles to be even more sore. So instead of making smores, I opted to give Monkey Boy a shower. I got a shower and then we went to bed. Like I said, I was so tired that I was pretty sure that I’d sleep better than the night before.
Saturday night ended up getting really chilly and I was happy to have a sleeping bag to get under! Sunday morning I woke up after sleeping much better. We got dressed and tore down camp and headed home arriving about 10:30 am.
To sum up our first family camping trip, it was great! The weather was nice despite the rain. In fact the rain probably helped keep ever thing cooled off. The rain didn’t hinder us too much. Everything in the kids’ tent ended up getting soaked, because the top of the tent wasn’t covering up the vent. That didn’t stop the kids from having a great time. It is a lot of work to go camping so I’m really glad that we went for 2 nights instead of the normal 1 night. I’m also thankful to have a husband who knows all the ins and outs of camping, because I think we were much more prepared than a lot of families there. 🙂
(I’ll be posting pics soon!)