Camping adventure with the kids

I didn't camp as a child. My parents were not interested in sleeping in a tent so while I got dirty playing with frogs and in the mud elsewhere, my first time sleeping in a tent was not until right before college (crazy, right?). CP and I did some camping in CO and NH but it has been a few years since we have been camping...and now that we have the kids it is a whole different ballgame!

We decided to camp at Mauthe Lake Recreation Area with friends of ours that have a boy in Izzy's class at daycare and a girl who is about 8 months older than Wes. Everything takes 10 times longer when you have kids so we didn't do all that much in the time we were there, but the kids still had fun.

We got to the campsite before our friends so we pitched the tent and CP started to cook dinner while I took Izzy to the playground to burn off some energy. It was gorgeous out....

Ready for our first camping adventure!

Izzy working the binoculars

The beach

The gorgeous Mauthe Lake

....until about 6pm when torrential rains started while CP was trying to cook dinner and when our friends just arrived at the site. All 8 of us huddled in our tent eating dinner and trying to stay out of the rain.

Hiding in the tent from the ferocious rain storm

Saturday morning everyone woke up at 5:30am (ugh). CP made breakfast for everyone and after eating, we headed down to the beach to play around in the water. 

Wes getting acquainted with the lake life 

We had lunch near the beach, then got ice cream at a local store before heading back up to the campsite for quiet time for the kids. I took a short nap and then Wes and I headed to a grassy area  to play while CP and Izzy slept. That night the kids roasted marshmallows for s'mores while Izzy had everyone tell scary stories around the fire.

Camping is tiring!

The kids luckily slept in Sunday morning so we were able to get a few more minutes of sleep before eating breakfast, packing up everything, and then heading down for some beach time before leaving the park. We stopped at a supper club on the way home for lunch (a very WI thing to do) and had an easy drive back to IL. Buster was very excited to be picked up from boarding and the kids thankfully went to sleep pretty early!

I would say the first camping trip was a success. We may not do it again until next year simply because it's hard with Wes not walking and not being able to sit in a booster seat. We didn't bring a high chair so we either held him for meals or had him sit in his stroller. It will be nice to not have to bring his Pack N Play as well. Unfortunately Wes came home with the most mosquito bites out of everyone in the family, but he doesn't seem to notice them. Meanwhile, I have been itching all day.....