baby's first camping trip

We did have a really nice time camping with the ankle-biters last weekend. We were supposed to go with another parents / two kids family, but they bailed the night before due to the weather. It was forecast to get down to 40F and to rain Saturday morning, but the campsite was already paid for and we were looking forward to it, so we went anyway. We did pack All the Fleece for the kids as a precaution and that turned out to be a very good idea. It rained between 2:00 AM and about 9:00 AM Saturday which was probably the best possible scenario. All we had to do to avoid it was hang out in the tent a little longer than we would otherwise on Saturday morning. It was chilly Saturday but not miserably so, and we took a nice if very short hike in the woods. Our friends came out for dinner and roasting marshmallows and a little bit of hanging out on Saturday evening, which was nice. It did get down to 39 degrees Saturday night and I was somewhat concerned…only 7 degrees above freezing! But I layered the kids in everything we had for them and it worked out fine. Poor Elliott looked like the little brother from A Christmas Story and couldn't bend at the waist to sit up in his four layers of fleece jammies, but he stayed cozy! Our new fancy-pants tent was worth every penny we paid for it, as we stayed 100% dry, even though our stuff was touching the edges of the inside. Mountain Hardwear is where it's at, for real.

The trip did solidify my feeling that state park camping is not for us. We were basically packed into a big open field with a hundred RVs. Not very woodsy or outdoorsy, really. We quite literally would've had more space, privacy, and quiet if we'd pitched our tent in our backyard in the middle of the city. From now on I think it's tent-only campgrounds for us, and even better if we can find remote or primitive type sites. It'll be easier once both kids are old enough to pee in the woods, for sure. We're camping again the weekend after Halloween, so I'm crossing my fingers for another great trip.

our camping-mate got this hilariously woeful shot of Elliott

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