Camping

Friday morning, Dan and I had a game plan. My goal was to check the girls out of school by 1:30. Dan did our grocery shopping and bought last minute camping supplies (like the tent :p since MWR messed us up) while I ran a few errands I needed to do. After getting Caden from school, I started pulling out what we would need. I had a pretty detailed list so it wasn't too hard.

We checked the girls out of school about 2 (I was close) and hit the road. We camped at Lum's Pond which is a state park in Delware about an hour from our house. We really wanted to camp at Cape Henlopen, but they didn't have any openings. On Sunday, we learned they were full because of a triathlon Sunday morning. We made it to our campsite about 4 and unpacked the car. It took about 30 minutes for me and Dan to set up the tent while the kids collected sticks and acorns and kicked around the soccer ball. One thing we learned on this trip is that we need an inverter for the car. My car pump that I thought would have no problem blowing up my air mattress took about 2 hours on and off (so it wouldn't over-heat). Lesson learned, but I didn't have to sleep on the ground at least. That would have been bad.

The kids really enjoyed the bugs. They found a huge horned beetle right away and played with him for awhile until he got squished (sorry Beetle). Allie loved the stink bugs that were everywhere!! She was carrying them around in her pockets. I have never seen so many stink bugs in my life. The outside of our tent was covered. I'm still finding them in the car (and we totally cleaned and detailed it yesterday).

We spent a lot of time cooking and eating while camping - which I think is what you are supposed to do. We made pizzas over the campfire for dinner the first night. We had eggs, bacon and pancakes for breakfast the second day and had sandwiches the rest of the time. The highlight of the camping trip for everyone was roasting marshmallow and making smores! I enjoyed the roaring campfires!

We did pretty well Friday night. It was a little cool in the morning, but not cold. We did some hiking around the pond which after googling we learned is a subjective term. It seemed more like a lake to us. The kids collected bags of leaves to make some leaf art projects. It drizzled on us some in the morning. After the walk, we climbed in our 16x7 (loved it) tent and played games (Uno and Bendominoes). The afternoon cleared off, but it was kind of windy.

By the time we went to bed Saturday night, it was getting cooler. The temperature continued to drop and when we got up at 7, the car was registering 41. It wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't had to get up out of my sleeping bag repeatedly during the night for bathroom breaks. Dan slept all night. I brought a bucket and made the kids sit on it because there was no way I was walking to the bath house in the middle of the night. Once we got up, we gave the kids snacks and then packed up quickly. We found a McDonald's a few miles down the road and had a nice, warm breakfast indoors!

I wasn't sure we were going to make it to Cape Henlopen with the bickering that was going on in the back of the van. I hate it when we are having such a good time and the kids start the sniping. It always ruins it. They finally stopped so we didn't have to turn around and head home. The beach was beautiful. I was glad to turn the kids loose. It was cool and windy so no getting feet in the water. We dug a big hole and played with the frisbee. We spent about 3 hours playing before packing up and heading home.

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend! It was nice to be unplugged from the TV, the internet and video games. I'm looking forward to warm weather in the spring so we can go again.