The First-Ever Whitney All-Family Camping Trip - Part 2

(Why I didn't just publish this 2 months ago when I wrote it is a mystery.  I'm not even bothering with trying to edit/find all my errors.  Time goes too quickly!)

So, where did I leave off from our camping story?  Ah!  Yes!  We had an amazing breakfast prepared by my oh so wonderful hubby-bubby of sausage and soaked pancakes.

The video I wanted to share of William cooking in the rain would not upload.  (Blogger and Mac seem to not work well together.  Or maybe it's just me! And, if one of them must go one day, it will not be our Mac!)  Here's the video (using You Tube):



Did you see his hustle?!?!  What good fun in the outdoors and sweet memories!

Day 2 of the trip found waking to wetness all around but enjoying a spectacular breakfast. After breakfast the rain did begin to slow down.  It was still damp so we opted not to attend the program of events we signed up for through ICHE.  We gave the kids the option and they were cool with just hanging around the campsite, playing in the sand area near the beach and exploring.

By the time breakfast ended and the rain stopped, we had to clean up after breakfast.  Camping is WORK... just like home.  But, with Hubby along for the fun, it certainly wasn't terrible.  In fact, it was oddly fun as we ended up with that outdoorsy mentality of, "Hey, everything's dirty, don't worry about getting it too clean!"

Paloma outside the tent after breakfast.
Notice the winter hat.  It was freezing in the early hours!

Once clean up was done it was almost time to get the fire going again or our lunch would not be ready on time.  Work time again!  The menu?  Hot-off-the-grill ham and cheese sandwiches with tomato!

After lunch Daddy took the bigger kids exploring around on some paths while I kicked back and tried to have a quiet time while the 2 little ones took an afternoon nap.  I think I read all of 3 verses and crashed!  I guess I was a little sleepy!

The naps were short so playtime came quick, especially when the bigger kids arrived with Daddy.  The kids played in sand, pulled Autumn in the wagon, dug an enormous pit near our tent, fished, and even enjoyed swinging on the swings.  Oh, the simple things!

We had dinner with the rest of the ICHE campers so it was an easy night.  Of course, we did end our evening with more S'mores!

Because the sleeping on the ground thing was way more painful than I anticipated, I tried to make it a bit easier by folding a blanket underneath us to give us a bit more relief from those annoying acorns.  I had no idea the acorns would be the least of my problems.

Yes, night two was... LONG.  We survived rain but... would I survive my husband turning into a barbarian?  Let me explain.

I was tossing around a lot trying to get comfortable and stay warm after getting up multiple times for kids being scared and Autumn wanting to eat.  Hey, it is like we're at home after all!  Once the kids were totally down though, I began to hear the wild animals.  Wild animals kinds freak me out.  Especially since the first (and last time!) I went camping with my husband and we were attacked by wild raccoons.  Yes, those crazy raccoons kept pawing at our tent!  It was horrible.

William knew my fear of the wild animals so what does he do?  He decides to go out in dark and mark our territory.  Okay.  So, he relieves himself.  I'm thinking he'll come back in the tent any moment.  Well, next thing I know, I hear him let out a small gasp of momentary pain.  Pops fell into the deep pit the kids dug!

Surely he'll come crawling back into the tent any moment, right?  Nope.  I hear him walking all around the tent.  What on earth?  I get nervous.  What will I do if my husband is attacked by a wild animal?  Then I see fire.   A LARGE fire!  So large our tent is now lit.  My husband went CRAZY.  I unzipped the windowed of the tent to peek out and I see a man I did not recognize.  And he stayed out there for a couple of hours!  Finally I whisper to him, "What are you doing?  You've been out there for hours?!"  He had been unaware of how long!

He comes back in and mumbles something about protecting us using fire.  Well, one thing was for certain, no animals came trotting over to our spot anymore!

The rest of our trip was typical.  Kids playing outside and getting filthy.

Fishing.

Sitting around and marveling at God's creation.

Throwing sticks in the fire.

And then, the inevitable final clean-up and pack up time.  (Note to self: have a plan for this as this wasn't as smooth as set up!  Prepare for the kids to have assigned duties.)  Once in the minivan I made our sandwiches and passed out lunch.  Yay!  No having to stop for and buy junk food!

My verdict?  The Whitney All-Family Camping Trip was a tremendous success.  Looking forward to our next one (most likely late Spring 2011).  Anyone up for joining us?

The First-Ever Whitney All-Family Camping Trip - Part 1

We did it.

We went camping.  All of us.  Together.  In a tent.  And we loved it!

We planned.  We practiced setting it up.  We waterproofed our gear.  We made adjustments.  We made stuff.  We compromised.  We made more adjustments.  We packed and loaded it up and left!

Here's one of the practice runs in our wild-looking backyard.

The drive to the site was about 2.5 hours long.  We had lots of screaming and crying.  Unhappy Autumn and Miserable Paloma.  We arrived and had a fairly secluded spot.  Pops mentioned the screaming baby who could possibly keep other campers up at night and I think that really helped!  This was one of those spots that you had to walk to.  Not far, but far enough when you've got to haul your stuff along with 5 kids that can't really pull any weight just yet.

Here's Daddy running with the cart to unload all our stuff.

Setting up our temporary home away from home was a breeze, thanks to Pops' dry runs at home.

People laughed when they saw how big it was but with 2 adults, one pack-n-play, and four kids in sleeping bags, we needed the space!  The kids were so happy to finally arrive!

Sariana

Paloma

Kadin

Joshua

Autumn

Our first meal was italian sausages (for Papa and Mama!) and nitrate free, uncured hot dogs (for the kids) with a side of campside fried potatoes and zucchini (from our garden) with diced onion.  DELICIOUS!!!!  (Since being pregnant, I can't get enough meat/protein!)  And the little leftovers of potatoes and zucchini went right into the fire to minimize trash!  Love it!

One of our compromises was a treat of smores.  You know, all the bad for you stuff, nothing homemade.  This was Joshua favorite part of the trip!  He and Daddy sitting in the dark by the fire after all the others were already in their sleeping bags.  (Oh- in case you're interested, Pops wanted a dessert he could bake/cook in our cast-iron dutch oven but I had a hard time planning for something like that!  Ideas?  Let me know!)

S'more face Saraina

Shocked Joshua intrigued by something.

So, bedtime arrives.  Autumn went down well, the bigger kiddos did okay.  Pops and I laid down and shortly after I heard a rumble.  I quickly say, "Is that thunder?"  It was around 9 or 9:15pm.  We were exhausted but we knew day two of our trip would be a travesty if our junk all over the campsite got wet.  So, out we went and in came all our stuff that shouldn't get wet (like our cast-iron pots and pans).  We had no other tarps to keep the firewood dry so we put the kids plastic square table over it, hoping we'd be able to make breakfast in in the morning.

Autumn somewhere under those warm blankets in her pack-n-play.

Paloma and Saraina and Kadin still snoozing in the early morning.

Joshua just waking up.

Papa and Mama's sleeping section.  No pads or air mattress.  PAINFUL!
Note: bring a rake to clear tent area of acorns and sticks before setting up the tent!

No rain comes.  We wake the bigger kids to have them go potty.  (NOTE:  this the ESSENTIAL for me if I ever go camping, especially being pregnant and needing to use the "facilities" often.)  Pops thought I was out of my mind when I asked him about 2 weeks before our trip to make a potty for me using the 5-gallon empty coconut oil bucket.  I had him cut a large hole in the lid for the potty seat and then doubled plastic bags and secured them to the buscket prior to snapping the lid on.  Voila!  A sturdy, clean, and available potty for us to use when needed!

The potty worked like a charm.  And then we went back to sleep.  And around midnight, the rain came.  And came.  And came.  It got much colder but we were fairly warm until Joshua woke up to tell me his blanket was wet.  Wet?  Pee or rain?  Rain.  Water was collecting under the tarp in certain places.  Out Daddy went to check the tent.  It rained a lot and for HOURS.

Morning comes early in the wild and this morning we woke to wetness all around.  Daddy was up and out of the tent right away.  His mind was on FIRE.  He had to get a fire going and keep it going.  I was thankful I packed rainyday toys, just in case.

Paloma and Autumn played well as Daddy prepared breakfast
and the bigger kids and I played  a matching game.

But then it slowed down and stopped.  And because I was keeping an eye on Autumn and Paloma, Pops had to make breakfast solo, for the most part.  He whipped up my soaked pancakes and some maple syrup breakfast patties (compromise food!) and then... when he was almost finished... it poured down on us.  Back in the tent, except for Daddy cooking still.

Check out this video of Daddy working it in the rain!

(Problem uploading video!  Sorry.)

Here's a picture of crazy Daddy drying off his shirt by the fire.  Later on he tried to do the same thing with his sneakers when he realized they were BURNING!

That was the BEST breakfast!  Because we had to run in the tent, we ended up making a pancake sausage sandwich which was DELICIOUS!!!!  And no need for silverware!

So, we made it through our first night of camping in the rain and God even provided a fire for us the next day as the wood under that little plastic table kept most the wood dry!

More to come... Part 2 to come soon!