Camping Tales

So it turns out camping with a 2-year old isn't all of that fun. I know, shocking, right?

Well, we gave it our best effort this weekend, heading out to Bullard's Bar which is a nice camp area/lake about an hour and a half from our house. We went with the majority of my Mom's family, and had originally planned on staying Friday afternoon through Sunday mid-day.

The trip started off well enough with Landon and our two dogs behaving pretty well in the car on the drive up. Once we got there the dogs were interested in smelling everything within reach while Landon seemed genuinely interested in wanting to help me set up the tent. That interest didn't last all that long and before I knew it he was off climbing tree stumps, throwing rocks, and picking up sticks.

Landon's favorite camping activity involved jumping off the massive stump that resided in our campsite. He'd climb up there, and then hurdle himself into my arms...catching me off guard on several occasions which resulted in one failed attempt. I would say his second favorite thing to do while camping (and this is a very close second) is to find a nice long stick, lay it in the fire for a few minutes, and then make smoke "bubbles" as he likes to call them. In reality he's just holding a long stick in the fire, then when it's either lit or smoking, he swings it around and watches what happens. Let's just say it wasn't one of our brighter ideas to teach him that, and it definitely wasn't a safe activity so we ended up eliminating that activity real quick.

On Saturday morning we woke up early and Michaela and I got in a nice 7-mile run on the local trail. It was a really tough run with plenty of hills and the altitude also made it more difficult. When we came back to the campsite we decided to go water skiing on Dennis' boat with Dennis, my Uncle Bryon, and Samantha. It was really fun, and as I had never been water skiing before, a very informational trip. I actually stood up a couple of times when everything was said and done, but didn't really get in any good amount of time skiing as I wiped out immediately. Unfortunately right when I finally started to get the hang of it all the bindings broke and so I couldn't ski any more. However, Michaela (who has ski'd before) managed to stand up and get in some quality waves....I was very proud! Then my Uncle Bryon and Dennis both went slalom skiing and showed us how it's really done. I managed to snap a couple of good pictures of Bryon while he jammed on the waves.

I must admit that water skiing eviscerated both Michaela and myself. I am writing this on the day after our skiing excursion and I cannot remember the last time I was this sore. My forearms, legs, and back are all screaming bloody murder any time I move or try and lift anything. I'm probably just a wuss, but I now have a new respect for the sport.

After water skiing we attempted to put Landon down for a nap, but with the heat and the fact that we were in a tent, we knew it was most likely going to be a pipe dream to get him to go to sleep. So he powered through and we spent the next few hours playing in the dirt and hanging out around camp. At one point Michaela and I managed to sneak away and we took our dogs to a local swim area where they got in a nice 30 minute swim session. We both noticed the difference in our dog Jack, as he goes from a sad and run-down dog to a happy-faced puppy when he gets to swim. While it was a short trip, we were glad that they got the chance to get wet for a bit.

Let me see...what else happened while we camped? Well...we had about five thousand mosquitoes converge on our camp every ten minutes, so we were constantly covering each other in OFF! We were literally covered in dirt from head to toe within the first few minutes of arrival and stayed that way until departure. And of course, Landon is a two year old full of energy, so he wasn't much in the mood to just sit down and hang out. So we spent every waking minute running after him as he chased birds, squirrels, and whatever else caught his fancy.

With all this in mind, we decided to call an early end to our camping trip and so we headed out on Saturday evening (while everyone else hung out until Sunday). We stayed until after dinner and then hit the road. Landon was literally asleep within 2 minutes of leaving the campsite. Leaving early ended up being the best thing for us as we woke up in the middle of the night last night to Landon throwing up. A couple of hours later my stomach starting acting up and I got sick...then this morning Michaela rounded out the group by getting sick...so we're assuming we ate something bad....either way, it was lucky we were home for this, instead of in a tent or driving home!

Anyhow...we did enjoy seeing all of the family and friends, but the trip reinforced one simple fact...we're not really "camping people" and hopefully we can remember that for the next few years...maybe we'll try it again when Landon is older, but for now, it's better to just limit our adventures to the civilized world.

Hope you had a great weekend!