We went with a couple other families in the ward and some more friends met up with us for just the campfire and smores at night but couldn't stay over. I never liked smores growing up, but now I can't get enough of them. For everyone that we invited and couldn't make it, but said "eat a smores for me"...mission accomplished.
We headed out just after Aaron got home from school. I spend most the afternoon getting us packed. We grabbed dinner before heading out since we weren't going to get there till 6:30 and not having a fire started let alone hot coals to cook dinner on would have put us eating dinner around 8 at the earliest otherwise. Not good for the kids...or me. We set up as Lily and Gunnar played with our friends' kids. It was fun to watch them enjoy the outdoors. I want my kids to grow up knowing camping and hopefully when they are teenagers and can't stand to be around us, we will still have that past time in common.
After setting up as friends were trickling in, we gathered around the campfire. Lily couldn't wait to roast marshmallows. I actually put Gunnar to bed before we did that in his port-a-crib in the tent and he went down so well. Especially considering he has 3, just about 4 molars coming in. He has been pretty good teething this time around, just a little clingy more than usual. After we hung out for awhile Lily came up to me and ASKED to go to bed! I will never turn that offer down. I think she was just excited to be there and to get to sleep on the mat on the ground in the same tent as Gunnar and us. Nonetheless, this is way outside the realm of her personality. She went to bed great and never came out of the tent or made a peep after.
We stayed up past 1:00am hanging out and warming up by the fire. It was actually pretty chilly that night. We played the 10 fingers game, a campfire tradition we started with our friends the Barton's when we lived in Utah and went up into the mountains to do evening campfires a lot. We camped on private property this guy owns and rents out to campers, so it was just our group. The only thing bad about this place as opposed to Gardener State Park where we went back in Nov was there were no restrooms. At least it had a port-a-potty, but I am not sure which is worse. Squatting in the woods, or that smelly sick thing. It was pretty cold and my face and nose especially froze since I hate sleeping with my head under covers. Aaron can totally sleep with blankets on his head, but I will hyperventilate if I try. I freak out and I hate breathing warm air.
The next morning we had eggs and bacon breakfast tacos cooked over the fire. This breakfast is a tradition and every time Aaron and I have camped, we have made this. Clean-up is kinda annoying, but you just have to get it done. We headed down to this really pretty river bank and Lily pretended to fish with her friend's fake princess fishing rod. There were pretty big fish in the river. She kept saying as she would reel in the line, "look mama, it's a mamisha!" And when I asked her what that meant she said, "it means I speak Spanish." The only problem is that Aaron says that that means not a thing in Spanish. That reminds me when we were at Sea World a couple weeks ago in the penguin area she kept pointing saying "mira!" (Look) All that Dora does do some good I guess.
After a little play by the river (Gunnar hates any water expect his bath tub, he doesn't even like my bathtub, just his otherwise he screams the whole time like he did when we went near the water at the beach) we headed home. This place was only 30 minutes away so that makes it so worth it. The other place was like 2 hours away. There was tons of laundry to do when we got home and I could not wait to take a shower, but I am really glad we went. I waffled between going or not because this past month has been really stressful for me especially since Aaron is so stressed out with his last month of school and trying to get everything done and turned in. Plus we had to speak in church today, and I really get stressed out about preparing for that. I think it did our family good to get out into nature though. I am just so glad our kids did so well sleeping. Lily did wake up upset a little before the morning but she just got in our air mattress and snuggled with me till it was light outside.
Hopefully we can do this once or twice more this summer when Aaron is on break.
![[Comments]](/nb//themes/Default/comments.png "1 comment")
(1) Sun Apr 20 2008 23:21 Roughin it:
We went camping again this weekend. Second time with Lily and Gunnar both. It went surprisingly VERY well. I am very proud of myself that I ignored my lazy self and did something extra for the benefit of my kids and family. I am sure everyone knows how much work camping involves, let alone taking kids along. Good thing I live near my mom and I can borrow all her stuff (cast iron skillets, cooking supplies already organized and ready to go, and firewood) that totally helped a ton.
Naturally, I took her to the Dr and they referred me to a dermatologist. The dermatologist diagnosed it as a pyogenic granuloma. However, he was not comfortable removing it because he would have to anesthetize the area and since it was so close to the eye he didn't want to take the chances with a 3 yr old jerking and poking the eyeball. So he then referred me to a pediatric surgeon. So I have an appt with him in May. We shall see. Hopefully once it is removed Lily will not have too bad of a scar there. I feel bad that she will have one on her face, but I think when she is older she will prefer tiny scar if there is one over the red mole.
It is funny because I guess Lily doesn't examine herself in the mirror that much so the other day when she looked at herself and noticed this red mole looking thing she exclaimed, "uhh, red eye!" with disgust. I guess you just had to be there but it was funny. I also had to take her into the Dr because she picked up ringworm somewhere. Probably the beach, and she had this big lesion on her knee that I thought was a scrap but it started spreading. Um, scabs don't travel so I took her in. I have been to the Dr so much this month with my kids and me. I was sick the other week with a cold so bad it lasted like 10 days and I found out I had molluscum on my arm. Mine wasn't as bad as the nasty picture on wikipedia and I only had a few and NO, it wasn't an std since it was on my arm. That's just weird saying. I paid $254 to an urgent care center to get checked out since I don't have insurance and he gave me over the counter meds for my super cold and froze my bumps with liquid nitrogen. So yeah, Lily and my bodies have been falling apart pretty much lately. Let's hope our number doesn't come up again for awhile. (1) Sun Apr 20 2008 23:47 Booboos:
Poor Lily. If you have seen any pictures on my picture blog recently, especially her portraits taken recently you will notice that she has a red mole looking thing just under her left eye. She got that thing about 2 or 3 months ago. At first I thought it was a scratch, but then it just kept getting bigger and more raised. It is pretty sensitive and can bleed non-stop if it ever gets broken.