Our first family camping trip

We finally did it, we finally made it out to camp!  It took - well, let's just say way too long to get Liam out camping, we decided not to waste any time with Cora.  I was still working from home and was planning on getting my hours in later in the week and Sean was off, so we went for it.  It was a good practice run for the trip on the 4th of July (that didn't happen, but that's another blog).  I was hesitant to go, not sure why, I just wasn't feeling like camping.  I didn't feel like peeing outside or sleeping not very comfortable and well, I was being a little crabby about it.  We spent some time talking about it in the morning, I would have rather stayed home to clean up our house rather than take more crap out, make more messes and never clean up the junk that's all over the place, which, by the way seems to just keep being all over the place, but maybe we will get it to at some point.

Anyways, once we decided we were going, we worked to get things packed up.  Sean took care of the camping things, I worked on clothes and food.  Finally, finally, finally, we were ready to go...and we headed out in the Rover for our first camping trip.  The packing actually went much better than I thought it was going to go and we were on our way.  We were headed to Webster Pass (and Liam was guiding us), which is an off-road ride we took once before, however, we planned to come at it from the Silverthorne side just in case the other face had too much snow.  Plus, this was closer to where we wanted to set up camp.  We drove hoping that Liam would fall asleep - but nope, not a chance - well, I take that back, he fell asleep as soon as we got to the off-road part.  Anyways, we drove through Silverthorne and stopped at a playground in Keystone so I could feed Cora and Liam could play.  Then we loaded back up and headed on our way.  It was only about 30 more minutes to where we both thought we would stop.  We went through the small town of Montezuma and headed down the trail.  We both recalled the trail not being too bouncy at this point, however, all the rain must have washed some of the road out as it was much bumpier than I recall.  I was a little worried about Cora, but she was pretty passed out and her head wasn't bobbing much at all.  We did tuck a blanket around just to be safe.    

We arrived at our planned campsite, or rather the area we thought would be best for camping.  We parked and got out to try and find something flat-ish.  The kids were sleeping, but Burton snuck out of the car and ran over to a jeep that was stopped by the creek.  He was being such a bad dog, just being free and happy - but NOT listening at all.  Finally, once I got him back, we went back to planning where to spend the night.  I think we finally decided that the best spot was going to be where the people were that were already there.  We hung out at our car, watched them back up and then stole there spot.  It was great, right near the water and under a few trees and mostly flat.  The hope was that the children would stay asleep until we got the tent up and yeah - that SO didn't happen.  Both kids were up and Liam was ready to go, as usual.  We let him spend a little time exploring while I fed Cora.  He liked the creek, loves throwing rocks into water and watching Burton splash around.  I was happy to sit by and watch him explore and learn - gosh, everything he does is so learning, it's crazy...and so awesome to watch.  It's especially good when I remember that him not listening, he's just learned - at least it makes me feel better to tell myself that.

So, the boys played in the water, explored and had fun.  It was time to get the tent set up.  Cora was happy just chilling in a camp chair - at least until Liam would go and bug her.  So, it was a toss up - do we let Liam help us with the tent, which would slow us down dramatically, or do we let him bug Cora.  We opted to have him help us - which was mostly fine.  He helped me get the poles out and watched and Sean and I remembered how to put the tent up.  It went mostly well for our first time in a few years.  Liam thought it was very funny to hang out and run around inside the tent with us peaking in on him through the door and window.

We were pretty much set up and decided we should go explore a bit.  We went on a small hike as it was getting a little late and we needed to get dinner and the fire started.  Burton chased his tennis ball as we walked and Liam had fun looking at everything.  Liam was also excited to help start the fire.  So, after he had played in the water a bit more, he joined Sean for his first lesson of fire.  Or course, it makes me nervous to have fire, as I said, he doesn't always listen the best.  He can at times, just do what he wants in order to learn, explore, or just do what he wants.  So, the fire made me nervous.  Sean went over with him how dangerous the fire was, how he had to stay this far back, etc.  And of course, we watched him with the fire, again, just made me nervous - just one of the many things I am sure I will worry about for quite some time.  We started our fire and got dinner going.  We hung out by the fire for a bit and then Liam seemed to be getting tired, so we decided it was time for him to head to the tent.  Of course, this gave him new energy and he bounced on the air mattress and ran around the tent.  After a few books and a few cuddles from Sean, he finally passed out while Cora and I enjoyed some dinner by the fire.  Sean was great and surprised me with wine - does it get any better?  Nature, a fire, my wonderful family and a glass of wine - life was good and I was totally wrong to think it'd be a bad idea to camp.  Sean and I stayed up for a bit, talking, having some wine and mostly waiting for it be dark - I wanted to see a million stars.  Well, turns out, it gets cold at night, in the mountains.  And while I did a great job of planning for that for the kids, I failed to do such a great job planning for me, nor did Sean.  And it was quite windy, so the fire wasn't doing that great of a job keeping us warm.  It was time to put the fire out and head to our tent, at least then we could all snuggle in our family sleeping bag and get warm, hopefully.

Cora was cozy in one of my favorite pair of Liam's pjs and a few blankets.  She was basically my heater for the night as I was freezing.  I thought I'd be good in a t-shirt and pants - no problem, I'd be warm snuggling with her, with Liam in the sleeping bag, it'd be all good, right?   Totally wrong - I froze.  I had things to put on, but at that point, I was way too cold to get up to put anything on.  I snuggled as best I could with everyone, but it was still quite chilly, especially when I had to get up and nurse Cora.  Oh well, what can you do, who really expects to sleep while camping anyways?   We slept that night as a family, our first trip, all of us in our big tent, cozy in our family sleeping bag and all seemed right in the world.  I woke up, from the light state of sleep I was and it was still chilly.  But there is something I love about a chilly camp morning, maybe it is the new day, maybe it is the fresh air, who knows, but I know I always love it.  My view was incredible out the window.

Once everyone else got up, we decided we would work to get going quick so Sean could make it back to work in time for a meeting.  Liam had other ideas, he wanted to cry.  He was very sad, for some reason and nothing seemed to make it any better.  So, he cried and cried and we listened to him whine about "nothing" as he likes to do when he isn't sure what is wrong.  We finally got everything packed up and headed out.  Liam was happy to be finally awake during the off-roading part and we were all happy that survived and mostly enjoyed the trip.  We can check the first trip off the list - as we hope for many more.  I had written at some point early on that I was looking to camp 6 months out of the year.  I'm not sure that'll be doable, but I already know we have a trip planned for July, so maybe we can do it!  Happy camping!