First Family Camping Trip

This Mother's Day was a little different than the past few years.  We usually go to the beach with some of my other mother friends.  This time we decided to give camping a try.  We haven't gone since before Aiden was born.  This trip was a little different from past experiences since it focused more on the kids than ourselves.  We didn't want to go far in case there was an emergency with the kids, so we went to Huntsville State Park just north of Houston.  We reserved two campsites and shared with two of my co-workers' families.  One family has a boy the same age as Aiden, the other a 5-year-old girl.

Saturday morning we packed up the truck and headed to the park.  We set up camp and then all went canoeing on the lake.

Canoeing is difficult with a baby.

 

Mila fell down in the canoe, so I immediately scooped her to make sure all was well.  When I set her down and looked around I could no longer locate my paddle.  The good news?  I got to enjoy the rest of the trip and let Travis do all the work.  He didn't seem to mind though.

We stopped for slushies on our way back to the site.  By the time we made it back, Mila was ready for a bottle and a nap.  She proceeded to sleep for the reminder of the night (though I woke her up momentarily for dinner).

 I forgot how amazing camping is.  It's so nice to be out in nature, away from the sounds of cars and stereos. 

The eventful hill:

Aiden wanted to try out one of the kid's bikes, that's a bit bigger than his.  I showed him how he could use the pedals to brake just like on his bike and also the hand brake.  The two kids walked next to him while he rode.  He started to speed up and made it around the corner before I could get him to stop.  He made it around the bend and picked up even more speed going down a hill.  Instead of using any of the brakes, he tried to drag his feet on the ground.  Since it was a bigger bike, he was unable to reach the ground.  He turned around and looked at me with a face full of fear.  It was horrible.  I was looking at his t-shirt and shorts and imagining the road rash we'd be dealing with.  He dove off the bike (or fell?  not sure...) and the bike continued down the hill and t-boned the red car you can see in the photo above.

I ran up to Aiden and scooped him up.  He was crying so hard.  I checked him over and he didn't have a scratch on him.  He was wearing a helmet (THANK GOODNESS) so his head was fine.  It wouldn't have been fine with as hard as it hit the pavement.  Ugh.  Horrible.  The couple who owned the car ran up with the bike to make sure he was okay.  They said they weren't even worried about their car as long as Aiden was okay.  The guy told Aiden he couldn't believe there wasn't a dent in the road with as hard as he hit it.  Seriously.  Me too.  I thought for sure Aiden would be covered in bruises in a few hours, but he only had one fingertip-sized bruise on his shoulder blade where he probably landed on a rock.  MAKE YOUR KID WEAR A HELMET!!!

For dinner we cooked hot dogs over the fire.  After dinner we roasted marshmallows and made S'mores.  I bought bug houses for the kids, so we ran around catching bugs.  When it got dark, we broke out the glow stick necklaces and poured a special powder on the fire to make it change colors.  The kids stayed up until 10 pm.  I wish that meant they slept in, but no.

The next day we sat by the fire and drank camp coffee while one of the other dads cooked breakfast.  Afterward we all split up.  One family went home, one went paddle boating and we opted for a hike in the woods.  I wanted to see if we could find anymore wildlife.  We'd  already seen tons of blue jays, cardinals and woodpeckers.  A squirrel practically climbed up Travis' leg.  We found a ton of white, fuzzy caterpillars around the campsite - perfect for the bug houses.

On the hike, we saw a black widow spider.  No joke.  I'm so glad we saw this at the END of the camping trip.  I would have been an anxious mess otherwise.  Ignorance is bliss.  The spider was hiding in the middle of it's messy web just inside a hole in a log.  When I saw the shiny black with the red spot, I knew instantly.  EESH.  On a lighter note, we also saw dragon flies, butterflies and two rabbits. 

We already had the truck packed up, but decided to eat lunch at the camp site.  Eating at a picnic bench in the middle of a beautiful park is way more fun that strapped to a chair in a moving vehicle. 

Camping with a baby was a little hard.  Mila can't walk quite yet and I didn't want her crawling around in the dirt eating pine needles.  I brought enough bottles that I only had to wash them once so we had enough to get us home on Sunday.  This trip was probably easier than it would have been if it were just us because one of the other families bought and prepared all the food.  One less thing for me to worry about!  I would love to go camping again soon, but preferably after Mila can walk and is off formula.  Though that might not be very far away...

 Happy Mother's Day!

My Mother's Day gift.