Monday, June 18, 2012

Our Camping Experience

We joined Mimi and Papa this past weekend on their annual church mission trip.  Chad and I were planning to just stay the weekend, but Chad was going to have a busy week of work the following week, so me and the kiddos decided to stay for the whole week rather than being at home on our own while daddy worked late nights.  We headed to Fort Payne, Alabama which was only about 2 hours from us.  This area was hit with tornadoes a year ago so the men in the church were going to help rebuild a few houses. 

The car ride was pretty peaceful while the kids took their afternoon naps.


The first day was nice.  Everyone got their campsite organized and set up, the kids played games, and we ended the night with dinner and devotions.



This was Caroline's first camping trip and the first night was pretty rough.  She was apparently very afraid of sleeping in a camper.  After crying herself to sleep, she woke up at 2:30 am and did not fall back asleep until about 5:00am.  We were sharing a camper with my parents--so no one got much sleep.  Thankfully, Grayson somehow seemed to sleep through it all.
Oh yeah, and did I mention that it started raining that night?  Um....pouring! And it rained pretty much for 2 days!!  Rain was not a good combination with 2 kids under 3 in a camper!  Thankfully, a nearby church allowed us to use their church building for meals and to have a nursery so that the kids could play and nap.  
The kids LOVED it!  By the  2nd day, Caroline  was getting used to camping, so our nights were much better!  We maxed out a minivan!  Me, Bonnie, and Courtney got around everyday in a minivan with 4 kiddos!  That would be me squished up in the backseat with the 4 littles.  We had to drive about 30 minutes from the campground to the church, but it sure was better than being locked up in a tiny camper because of the rain!

Finally the rain stopped and we were able to enjoy being outside.  

Grayson and Caroline enjoyed spending a week with Aunt Bonnie, Uncle Willy, and Abby Ruth.


And nature calls....
Cousin time!!  A bucket of water was a great way to pass the time away...






The day that Chad was with us, he insisted that we go see a waterfall.... in the pouring rain.....
so we did...

we were all soaked!





Our week was filled with GREAT fun and GREAT memories!!

1 comment:

kenzie said...

this is the best post! so funny! ... esp of grayson going on the potty hahahah!