#1 our new air mattress decided to deflate, which made sleeping very difficult. We had to pump it up every night just before bed, but still Kirk and I would end up sinking into the middle together, which made it hard to sleep, and also hard to get out of bed throughout the night to get Hudson. Which leads me to...
#2 Hudson didn't do so well sleeping this week. He woke up a few times every night, and it wasn't just the waking up, but it was the screaming that probably woke up everyone in our campsite along with the surrounding campsites. By most mornings he ended up inside the van as not to wake other campers. FUN FUN FUN.
#3 heavy lifting. Kirk would drop us off as close to the beach as possible, and we would haul all of our beach supplies down to the beach. Our list included, but is not limited to: 2 beach chairs, cooler, beach bag with towels, sunblock, my Eclipse book (which received little attention this week because I was too busy with the kids), snacks, 2 beach umbrellas (one to shade Hudson during naps), playpen for Hudson's naps, boogie board, sand toys, and all this while carrying Hudson too.
#4 Family showers. Yes, we did have to shower in those nasty community showers where you pay a 50 cents for 3 minutes of warm water, but that wasn't the challenging part. For me it was the absolute worst when I had my kids all undressed and ready to take the fastest shower possible and I put the quarter in the slot and yep, no hot water comes out! Almost all of the large family showers had this problem as we found out throughout the week of doing this same scenario a couple times.
Those are just a few of the challenges we had camping, but you can bet we will be there next year just the same. I grew up camping with my family, and I have so many neat memories of it. I am realizing that as a mother, family vacationing just isn't the same as it was when I was a child. All the planning, packing, and hard work will pay off when I have children who have wonderful memories, and children who love being with their family. My children will thank me someday just as I thank my parents for enduring so much so that we would have quality family time together camping. Here are a few pictures from a few of the less challenging moments.
Grandma Salmon and all 12 of her grandchildren ready for a walk/ride. There was a grandma scooter ride rotation that day because there were a couple of accidents when she attempted to take all of them at the same time.
Hudson was sleeping when we were taking one of our family showers, so when he woke up we bathed him in this dish basin outside. He seemed to like this much better than the crazy fast showers.
I prepared a couple crafts for all the kids, so here is Capri's pet rock creation.
HAPPY KIDS- so proud of their pet rocks. This is something I will definitely do again in the years to come because they all loved the crafts so much.
Wonder what camping will be like next year with Hudson toddling around :).
2 comments:
You are my hero. My family always camped when I was younger too. I have such good memories of it. This last trip to Ventura, most of our family was sleeping in my parents beach house we tried camping....not so good. Aaron always winds up getting a huge headache. The next night we used Aaron's Marriott points and stayed in a hotel. So what are your tricks? I really want to make it a tradition to camping with our family, I feel like I am not doing something right!
good for you to keep going camping! james wants to go for ONE night & i'm already dreading it! but, i feel like you do..the kids love it & have the best memories of camping. SO, i guess i'll do it since you did TWO trips & to the beach no less!:) i'm glad you had such a great time & i'll note all of the things to think about from your list.:)
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