Alas! The long-awaited camping post.
I have a group of mommy friends. I love these mommy friends. They are adventurous and marvelous. We made a book club, we have girls' weekends (during one of which one friend's water broke and I drove her to meet her husband and a baby was born 3 hours later), we have playdates galore, we train for half marathons together, ad nauseum. Great friends.
When these great friends said, "hey! let's all go camping together!" I thought, "surely I can talk my husband into this and it will be fantastic."
So, the first annual Mommy Friends Campout took place in July at Ocean City State Park in Ocean Shores. We signed up for a campsite, and four other families signed up for their own campsites, and we had five families with ten adults and ten kids embark on this adventure.
Of the five families, TWO were complete novices. We were one of those novice families. No, we have never camped as a family, I have never camped in the Northwest, and we had no idea what to expect!
Friday
The hardest part was packing. Our car is not that big. Friday morning I had a panic attack and called my friend who had a minivan, who graciously offered to take some stuff for us. Amazingly, we were able to fit it. We put a basket (which we've owned for years but never used) on our roof rack. I wish I would have taken a picture of our little Subaru Impreza, packed to the gills. The sleeping bags, camping chairs, and I think air mattresses went on the roof (thank goodness it wasn't raining!). In the trunk was stuffed a bin of camping gear, a cardboard box of dry food, the tent, two bags of clothes, and our coats (well not my coat. we forgot my coat. everyone else's coats.). In the footwells went firewood, a small cooler (we're lucky we didn't need the big cooler I bought solely for this occasion! It never would have fit!), and assorted kid play things (kites, outdoor games, etc.). In between the car seats went the pack & play (for baby) and diaper bag. Kids had backpacks of car activities on their laps. You get the idea. We were PACKED.
It was a 3-hour drive that probably took us at least 4 hours. Traffic near the military base is awful!
We bought a used tent online from a Facebook swap group; the owners claimed it was a $150 tent they only used in their backyard a couple times. Most of my friends were jealous of our tent, it is pretty spacious (the green one to the right below...) We got this bad boy for $30! It's in great shape! I had made Shane do a setup dry-run Thursday night so we knew we had all the pieces.
We had a snafu with our (borrowed) air mattress where I feverishly texted my friend (not on the trip) for advice. Luckily we got it fixed. Wesley was positively giddy when the air mattresses and sleeping bags were out. He kept calling it his "sleep sack" and jumping in it, etc., just laughing and having fun. It brought me some sense of happiness in the midst of the preparation stress.
After we got situated, we made a fire for dinner. This place was cool since they had an "ice cream truck" that came around selling firewood and water. Funny!
For food, I tried to go everything-prepared-ahead-of-time. We didn't have a stove and I wasn't ready to buy one. I pre-made tinfoil dinner which was sorta a disaster since they took forever to cook and at one point I ate raw chicken. Luckily no barfing. And the kids were fine. The veggies weren't cooked. Sigh. We put them back on the fire and in another 20 minutes they were perfect, but I do consider it a disaster.
One of my friends tried to make chocolate chip cookies in her pie iron and that was a disaster, too. Luckily I wasn't the only one with culinary disasters that night.
For dessert we had banana boats.... a delicacy. We actually have these on the grill during the summers, too....
Getting the kids to bed was a nightmare. Wesley's a busy kid, who we have a hard enough time getting to sleep in his own bed at home. Somehow I think Friday was easier than Saturday, so he did go to sleep, as did Laurel. It was cold there, so we had her sleep in like, a full winter bunting (at the advice of another friend). But then in the middle of the night she was crying (miserable? unfamiliar? hot?) so we let her sleep on our air mattress. She'd a bed hog.
One of my friends could like, put her kids to bed then come hang out around the campfire and talk for ages. I was positively shocked. Mine were not as adjusted to camping!
Saturday
We woke up to mist. Like, lots of mist which actually seemed like rain. Someone said it was just an "ocean breeze" and it would blow off. Well, it soaked my feet and shoes and I only brought ONE PAIR of shoes (plus flip flops) for Laurel and she was soaked instantly. The kids didn't seem to be miserable but I was sure worried about them having wet feet all morning. It was COLD! Like, we all got out our winter coats (except for me, remember Shane packed everyone's coats but mine?)
We used someone's fire to warm my pre-made breakfast burritos. They turned out AWESOME. I just don't quite know why I made like seven of them. There are two adults and two children in my family, did I think we'd eat like Thanksgiving? We had "leftovers" but nowhere to put them.
It was freezing and the kids were nuts, so we quickly packed some lunches and got out of there -- to the beach. The freezing blustery Pacific Ocean.
My kids and the kids from one other family did OK with the cold -- they wanted to play in the sand. Everyone else complained and the other families left. Yup. We're camping, the beach is the MAIN EVENT, and everyone leaves after 20 minutes. It was crazy! I don't like a lack of activity. Laurel in fact slept the entire time we were at the beach. You can drive your car out onto the beach here so we all parked right next to where we played. It was wild.
We got to see things like horses on the beach, fancy cars on the beach, Segways on the beach, and the one crazy 20-something in her bikini on the beach. It was COLD.
Most people went to town to check out the shops and (seriously?) get ice cream.
The gift shop has an intriguing entrance... ;-)
Luckily a friend scouted out a small park with picnic tables and we had lunch there.
The kids had fun. We saw deer.
After the quite breezy picnic we went back to take a nap, aka wrangle with the kids in the tent for awhile. I do think Shane and I fell asleep. I think zero of our offspring fell asleep.
I recall going for a walk with the kids around the campgrounds, playing with the stomp rocket, blowing bubbles, catching bugs, and complaining about being cold. That was the whole afternoon.
Then it was dinner -- we did a group dinner, taco night, where we each supplied something. Taco meat, tortillas, chips, salsa, avocado, etc., it was really quite fun. Afterwards were lots of s'mores.
Wesley ate tortilla chips and blueberries. Laurel sat on a Coleman cooler with the other adorable toddlers.
(If you're wondering what Wesley has here, it's a pedometer. It's his recent obsession, well until he lost it recently. He kept it with him all weekend.)
After dinner, each family prepared a "minute to win it" game and we played. Well, my kids were a wreck so Shane tried to put Laurel to bed. He was not successful, if I recall.
Some of the games: Dropping pencils in a cup...
Mummy mommies...
Ping pong balls into a paper cup/plate hat...
Start an Oreo on the forehead and use your face muscles to get it into your mouth.... we did have a winner, one of the dads did it. This was the true essence of camping because yes, Oreos fell on the ground, and yes, we ate them anyway. Real camping.
The sun finally went down and somehow we got our kids to bed. Many of us sat around the campfire and talked. We talked about kindergarten and Seven Degrees of Kevin Bacon and taking care of the house and all sorts of stuff. We were really wiped out.
At one point Shane and I went over to our site's picnic table and played Boggle by lantern. It was actually kind of sad because our lantern was wimpy and we were really cold and tired. I remember looking at him with sad eyes as if to apologize. Camping was tough.
Sunday
Same cold mist in the morning. Same soaked toes by breakfast. We had pancakes and sausages, thanks to one family who let us use their Coleman stove!
We got a picture of the whole crew....
Taking down the tent.... our cute cold little helpers.
"I don't wanna go home, mom!" Actually I think she was mad about something else....
And camping gets a....
Haha.
When the car was all packed, we had the option to go down to Ocean City park and check out the beach there. We sat in the car, all ready, and Shane asked what I wanted to do. I kinda defeatedly said, "let's just go home." I hear that beach was actually kind of nice (less cold, more cool dunes) and perhaps we would have liked it. Who knows if we'll ever know.
We learned a lot. I have a list of things we forgot and a list of things to definitely bring next time to make things easier. Next time, you ask? Yes.... I think (now that this is a month in the past) we will try Eastern Washington camping, a nice hot hot Lake Chelan or Lake Wenatchee, before giving up for good. We did buy a tent for heavens' sake. It would be nice to use it some more. It would be nice to go camping when we go to a lake or waterfall and swim ALL DAY and get nice and hot and dirty and tired, then come home and eat hot dogs until our bellies are full and fall asleep warm and happy. That did not happen on this trip.
Verdict: Epic Fail. But I had a fun time with my friends, I think the kids had a blast, and we'll probably do it again. Like I said, I like camping... right?
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