Labor Day Camping 2013

Well, we successfully managed to camp with a 4.5 month old. And the people around us were still smiling at us by the end of the weekend! Always a good sign. Granted, we only spent two nights (and less than two days) at the campground--partially due to weather (low temperatures of 78 are not conducive to sleeping in a tent--especially with an infant) and partially due to our schedules not allowing us time to get ready any sooner (I should have gotten a picture of how stuffed our car was!), but it was still a great experience. And William seemed to enjoy himself too! Here are a few highlights of our trip:

--We got a new tent! I'm not entirely sure William's pack and play would have even fit into our old tent, let alone have there be room for Darrell and I. So we purchased a "family" tent, and after using it this weekend we're pretty confident it's the last tent we'll ever have to buy. Not only is there space for two adults, a pack and play, and any future children that we might have, but it can also withstand the elements. It stormed Saturday night (wind, rain, thunder, lightning--although places closer to Sioux Falls got golf-ball sized hail), and we didn't get a lick of water in the tent (pee, though, well, that's a different story).

Our new digs

There's even some shelving inside--how cool is that?!? Plus there's a hinged door--it seemed kind of unnecessary at first, but we totally loved it by the end of the trip

There's even plenty of room for William to play with his toys in the tent

--William made some serious progress on sitting unassisted! Of course, that development probably has nothing to do with the fact that we were camping, but it was still pretty cool.

Look mom, no hands!

--We went on our first family hike! William was pretty wide-eyed for about the first ten minutes, and then he was out. In fact, that was pretty par for the course for the weekend--whenever William was awake his eyes were wide open and taking everything in. Definitely a little over-stimulating at times (and we ended up paying for it in the sleep department).

--William got to experience all sorts of manly things. He even managed to get tons of dirt under his fingernails, even though we had him on a blanket when he was on the ground. Not sure how that happened, but I'm sure it's only a harbinger of things to come.

Enjoying the fire from a distance

A little too eager to get close to the fire

 

Caught red-handed!

At least he's enjoying his beverage under Daddy's supervision this time

He even got to drive Grandpa's pontoon at the lake on Monday (and he somehow managed to put the boat into neutral while we were cruising around the lake. Silly boy!)

--And last (but certainly not least), we discovered that William enjoys swinging! You can bet we'll be making plenty of trips to the park near our house now that we know this.

Looking forward to many more camping trips with these two cuties!