original little hellraisers

if you haven’t read it on tyler’s blog already, we went camping with nicole, todd and tyler.  it was a first for me and since we are complete novices, nicole and todd graciously brought all the food and camping gear.  we brought beer, a tent and glow sticks but what else do you really need when camping.

it was a short trip but a good introduction for the kids, we drove down to nicole and todd’s home friday night and completely screwed up the kids sleep schedule.  they slept the enter four hour drive and when we arrived at 11pm they both woke up.  owen wanted to go back to sleep, but was completely disoriented and had a little bit of a hard time.  dylan wanted to play and since we were all in one room together he kept calling out for “pa pa” and the way dylan says “pa pa” it disgustingly sweet, you can’t help but acknowledge it.  i’d lay him down, he roll over pop his head up and say “pa pa”, if i actually gave him to john, he’d freak out.  so i kept laying him down, he’d pop up, i’d lay him down, he’d giggle pop up, lay him down.  i did this for an hour and half when he finally got the message that he need to stay laying down.  ugh!

we get over to the campsite in the morning which equated to a parking lot with picnic benches and fire pits.  i was a little concerned owen was going proclaim that this was not camping.  the location was really convenient right on the water and next to the bathrooms.  perfect for a family with kids.

the kids were all about the tent or i should say bounce house.  owen stayed in the tent nearly the entire time.  i tricked him into taking a walk down to the beach where the kids played with the sand and collected sea shells.  here’s a perfect example of how different owen and dylan are.  we were looking for sea shells and a wave comes in, owen goes running up the beach away from the water as fast as he can and dylan walks/runs as fast as he can into the water!  of course i have to go after dylan.  todd went after owen (john was back at the camp).

as night came, the men built a fire and we roasted marshmallows.  owen was very concerned that the camp fire was going to be too big and wouldn’t come out of the tent until he was sure that the fire was fully contained.  i think owen is going to be in the business of risk management.  dylan went to bed fairly easily but woke up at 1:30 when owen woke up.  i actually don’t think owen was actually awake, he sort of just sat up and said “my feet” i think because he was wearing footed pajamas and then layed back down.  so a 1:30 i was desperately trying to get dylan to go back to sleep quitely.  i normally don’t care about the noise my kids make, but i was worried dylan was going to wake up tyler and then we’d have two kids crying, but tyler slept right through it.  it didn’t take long to get dylan back to sleep, but the down fall of camping in essentially a parking lot is the late comer’s that roll in with the gurgling trucks and motorcycle’s.  seriously!

todd made us a great breakfast in the morning, eggs, potatoes, bacon and hot coffee.  perfect!  john ran out and got donuts and mimosa fixings.  need to remember to bring that with us the next time we go.

i don’t know how but we managed to pack up super fast.  we’re already planning to make reservations for next year because apparently you need to book a year in advance.