Camping

This weekend was our big camping weekend of the summer.  After a glorious night out for our anniversary, where we left the kids and dog and house behind in the capable hands of Grandma Lady, we returned home in the morning on Friday ready to tackle the day.  Little did we know that it would take the next 7 hours to organize ourselves to get ready for camping.  In between the loads of laundry and camping supplies organizing, we bid farewell to Auntie E and the gang (who were headed back up the valley for another few days before Auntie E's big adventure in Calgary next week) and Grandma Lady (who after a wonderful month with us was finally headed back to Alberta for a few days before her next stint in grandchild care).

Finally at 4:30pm, we loaded the car, stopped at A&W for a $3 Uncle burger for Papa and hit the road up the valley.  We arrived to a campground full of friends, ready to play and socalize.  It was the same group we had camped with last summer with great success.  The kids hit the ground running.  Schmoo spent tons of time on her new bike, doing laps around the campground.  Bean found a few friends and bustled around chattering with them about 5-year old boy stuff.  We didn't quite make it to the campfire the first night.  Everyone was tired from a full week of cousin time and the process of getting ready to camp, so we hit the hay pretty early.

Saturday was a full day.  Bean was up at 6:00am, ready to take on the day.  Papa and Bean managed to get out with another friend and his son in the canoe in the morning for a bit of a paddle and an attempt at fishing.  Even Airlie wanted to go along.  I had to call her back when she tried to swim out alongside their canoe.  Their fishing expedition was cut short when they got called back to go on a hike.  All 10+ families (I think we counted about 20 kids under the age of 8 in total) packed up and headed up into the mountains for a four hour long hike.  The kids did great.  No complaints from Schmoo or Bean as we hiked up and back down.   The view was beautiful too!  A great reminder of what a beautiful place we live in.

We returned to the campsite for dinner, a campfire complete with a sing along and smores and big soccer game with parents and kids all running around together.  The activities of the day caught up to our kids eventually and we managed to miss our opportunity for a smooth bedtime, instead getting a hysterical, over-tired daughter who took ages to settle down.  Ahhh, the joys of parenting.

Today has been quieter.  The kids managed to sleep later than 7am and Papa managed to get the tent torn down and put away before the rains blew in.  We packed up and decided to give the group's planned activities a miss, opting instead to head home for a quiet afternoon and some much needed space.  Schmoo and I managed to get a nice long afternoon nap, while the boys spent the afternoon watching soccer...surprise, surprise.  After a pizza dinner together, the boys headed off to bed while Schmoo and I snuggled up to watch Nanny McPhee.