The Melders Go Camping

Doug and I both grew up camping and really enjoying it.  We have lots of wonderful memories from those separate adventures.  Oddly, we've never attempted to try out camping as a couple or as a family.  Perhaps it's just because we don't have much gear for it or because it seemed like a lot of work (or because we are loyal Marriott members, and let's face it, it's tough to rough it after you go on a few comfortable vacations on reward points).  But since having 3 boys, we've wanted to eventually do the camping thing, expose the boys to the simple fun of roughing it outdoors, sleeping under the stars, making your food over a fire, etc.  Well, a month or so ago, Aunt Megan invited us to join she and her boys and some mutual friends on a one-night camping attempt at Raccoon Creek State Park.  I was excited (Doug was a little apprehensive).  One-night seemed doable.  If it's a disaster, it's just a night of your life.  Also the park is only an hour from home, so if it's a real debacle, there's always the escape of just calling it quits.  So, we decided to take the chance and give it a try.  I am so glad we did.  Thanks so much to Aunt Megan, Deborah and Grant, Emily and Ian for including us on this little adventure.  We had a great time and were so happy to finally expose the boys to this experience and it definitely helped wet our appetites for more camping fun in the future!  

We arrived at the the park campground to setup around 3:30pm.  Aunt Megan, Alex and Andy arrived shortly afterward (poor Uncle Nate was in Asia traveling on business!).  The 5 boys between us were all about "helping."  

We got the tents up and were quite proud of ourselves (particularly Doug and I since we borrowed this tent from Grampa and it looked a little daunting to set up when Grampa gave us the run through in NH a few weeks ago).  Look, even Penn's cheering for us!

Looks great, baby.  We are on the right track for a great experience, right?

I got the fun of setting up the sleeping quarters.  The tent is enormous.  I figured we'd be cramped in a tent all together, we definitely have room for another in there.  See, maybe a family of 6 won't be that hard to accommodate?

Doug was being silly trying to capture all my "organizing" and "arranging" of the layout.

Final look...pretty cute!!  All ready for a good night's rest, right?

After the tents were set up (and Deborah and her kids and Emily and her girls arrived), we got all changed and headed down to the beach at the lake for a swim.  By the time we got there it was 5:30pm, but when you are just outside all afternoon soaking up the beautiful end-of-summer day, it really didn't seem to matter.  The boys had snacked while we set up the tents, so they were content and happy to just keep having a blast with each other!

I was so proud of Tav for swimming in the lake.  He kept asking about the fish and was so nervous about being bitten by them, but after seeing big brother go in, he found the courage and did a great job!

Penn, my little Mr. Content, was happy to just wade in and out, lay on his tummy to cool off and dig in the sand.  Who knew it was dinnertime and coming up on bedtime??

We eventually wrapped things up when some of the kids were definitely showing signs of tiredness (poor Tav was asking to go to bed!).  The rest of the guys had arrived at the campground with firewood and Doug had started a fire, so once we arrived back at the site, it was time to start cooking "mountain pies."  I had never heard of these clever little camping treats, but it's basically a quick and fun way to make a variety of grilled cheese in the coals of the fire.  We did pizza-flavored ones mostly that evening, the boys enjoyed that and all the other yummy veggies, fruit and snacks friends had brought to share.

After dinner we moved right to S'more making since it was after 8:15pm already!!  Time flies when you are having fun (and when you cook over a fire).  Once I found the right setting on my camera, I got a few pictures of the boys enjoying the fire and its proceeds.  Penn gobbled up tons of graham crackers which he liked to store in the cup-holders of this chair.

Koen's mostly into the marshmallows and a big part of that is because he loves to work with the fire.

And our S'more man...Tavin Happy Dale.

Well, after that it was about 9pm and definitely time to get these kids to bed!  They had done so well staying up so late, but they were definitely tired and it was dark enough to definitely attempt the all-three-at-once bedtime.  Thankfully it went off without a hitch and the boys went down without a peep!!  I had let them know they would hear the other kids as they went to bed and they would hear the fire and the adults hanging out for a bit, so there was no reason to come out of the tent and complain.  They just needed to go to bed.  And that is what they did (thank goodness!).  Doug and I stayed up with the other adults until about 11pm and then hit the hay ourselves.  We were still a bit nervous about what the night would hold, but thankfully there were no major events.  Tav coughed a bit, but other than that we all slept soundly at the campsite until the first peeps came from another tent around 6:30am and then our boys were up by 7am.  Once we heard a little noise coming from each tent, Doug crept out of ours to get the fire going for breakfast.  I got a little extra snuggle time with my bugs.

The boys were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in the AM despite their shorter night of sleep.  Here's Penn all cozy (started out quite chilly!) and saying, "cheese," before breakfast.

Doug was the fire guy for the camping trip (he loves that role) and he had fun inventing his own amazing egg sandwich for breakfast.

After breakfast Koen, Miles, Tavin and Claire played awesome together keeping busy building a catapult out of sticks (it was quite impressive, but unfortunately got knocked down before I could get a pic of it).  Penn, on the other hand, got pretty tired.  He just wanted to snuggle with his beep beep blanket and chill out in the tent.  It was funny watching him just bounce around in there on the mats, etc. 

When he was sick of the tent, he got some snuggles by the fire with Daddy.

While some of the adults stayed to clean up the campsite, the other adults took the kids on a walk to the playground.  Miles offered his hand to Penn and Penn was so pleased to be paid attention to by one of the big kids.  Look at him just gabbing away!

The playground was pretty simple, but the kids enjoy spending time together so much that they had a blast running around there.  

Tavin and Koen both loved this little compass/magnifying glass/binoculars camping tool Miles brought.  I spy you, Tavin!

There were two swings and Koen and Miles had some fun going crazy high on them.

Alex and Tav took a more moderate approach, but also had fun.

After about 45 minutes at the playground the vans and cars were all packed up and it was time to head home for us (the other families went down to the lake again for a swim and lunch, but we had to get home because Doug had to do a wedding rehearsal that afternoon!).  It was a quick, less than 24 hour experience, but it was a great way to test the camping waters and I think it was a big success.  I'm actually sort of hoping we get to do it again this Fall.  Call me, Crazy!