Last Hurrah

We've just completed a mini-vacation, our last hurrah before preschool and classes and bible studies and other fall what-nots. We spent two nights tenting at Union Reservoir. Our first camping trip as a family! You see, after Anna arrived we limited our camp outs to those with my parents and their RV. After all, grandparents and an RV are handy when kiddos are small and need a lot of stuff and a lot of sleep. Now that the kids are a bit older, we decided to break out the tent and give it a try on our own. I have great memories of camping in a tent trailer with my family when I was a kid, and wanted to expose the kiddos early. I also wanted to camp by a lake, since our Canadian forays involve mountains.

I was nervous about it, but thanks to a good amount of planning and some creative packing we had a lot of fun. Not a lot of sleep, but a lot of fun. Anna loved loved loved being in the water, and could not get enough of the waves on one windy afternoon. Isaac was less enthralled by the whole beach experience. Instead, he was happy to just be outside, running around the camp site kicking his ball and playing cars. We cooked dinners over the campfire, which is what I love to do. Fire roasted food is just sooo yummy. The simple hamburger becomes a different creature when cooked to smoky perfection. Marshmallows were roasted, of course. This is one tradition I can do without. There are few foods I will spit out of my mouth, but the bloated marshmallows is one of them (blue cheese is another, but that's a different story).

Our biggest challenge was settling down Isaac in the evenings. Apparently, running and jumping around in a tent is super-fun and incredibly stimulating when you're two. It is also stimulating when you're four, but four knows when enough is enough. Two just keeps going and going and going until Daddy must speak firmly and said two year collapses in a sad heap and cries himself to sleep. I suppose it didn't help that the tent was rather warm, owing to the unusually hot August we've been experiencing. I am so done with August and 90 degree weather.


One thing we learned is the need for more sleeping mattresses. We cobbled something together for each of us, but let me say that a yoga mat really is not for sleeping on. It just really is not. We also learned that we don't physically have room in the car to camp for more than two nights. At least, not at a beach. Beach stuff takes up some serious room. A good excuse to get a bigger vehicle? Perhaps! Overall, it was a fantastic time. I'm not sure we'll camp at Union Reservoir again - little shade, "generator friendly," and kinda noisy - but I'm looking forward to our next outing. Whenever and wherever that may be.