Camping Attempt

So we finally decided to make the attempt to go camping as a family of four. We were thinking back to the last time we had been, and it was 3 summers ago!! WAY too long for this outdoors girl...I guess it is just a testament to how much little ones can change your lifestyle. I was supposed to be at the cabin this week, but we used the plane tickets to go to my Gram's funeral 2 weeks ago instead. Mike had made plans to go hiking with a buddy in our absence, and so my brainstorm was born....camp and then go on a hike together! It should have been easy. I had to break all the camping gear out and make sure everything still worked, and be very discriminate about what we would bring (think big dog taking up the entire cargo area of our Outback...no room for luggage). It was interesting, but we squeezed all the gear in and headed out Saturday afternoon. Although we didn't get the pick of the crop (big surprise there!) we found a walk-in campsite that was nice enough. One minor caveat....the family in residence before us was not exactly clean, so there was half-eaten fruit loops, an entire box of Nerds, and toilet paper strewn about the site (no time to clean up before we moved in). I spent the first 20 minutes picking up garbage thinking Kira just might try and eat some of the colorful tidbits strewn about. Of course she proceeded to do this while I was trying to clean up, multiple times. Gross! Fast forward to bedtime. Eva says she's tired and wants to go to sleep, and at the mention of ni-nights, Kira decides this is a great idea too. Against my better instincts, we put them down together in the tent. Yeah right. We tried removing Eva and letting Kira fall asleep. Nope. The Kira out. Nope again. finally, with two very tired and grumpy girls, we gave up,and went to bed too at 8:55. At least once they were asleep it was fine. Of course at 6:15, a crow cawed outside out tent and we awoke to Kira chiming, "Birdy!!" The morning quickly revealed a grumpy-overtired Eva. One of those, "I want a pancake!. NO! I don't want a pancake" dialogues, you parents all know the one. I realized both girls needed a solid nap for everyone's sanity, so the hike for us a family had to be scrapped. It ended up being a blessing in disguise, as the trail was the furthest from kid-friendly as possible (I took 40 minutes to hike up as much of it as possible for some exercise while Mike played with the girls by the river) Steep, drop-offs, loose gravel on much of the trail..scary! A great work out though!! I went home with the kids and Mike hiked with his buddy. Bottom line: we're glad we went, but know we won't go through so much effort for only one night again!! We had to try, and now we've learned a few things for the next time..............