Camping - Hickory Run State Park

Flashback *Camp trip - August 30, 31*

Once again, we waited until nearly the end of the season to head over to the Poconos for a camping trip.  We stayed two nights this time, but in my opinion, that wasn't long enough.  I just needed to get away and spend some time not worrying about all the things I've been stressing over.  Even with our young children, and despite the inordinate amount of work and preparation it takes, there is something about camping that relaxes me.  Despite our best efforts, we describe this camping trip as funny!

Upon arrival at the campsite, I asked the kids to show me their excited faces:

Bruce took Eliza to the camp store to buy firewood, while Zaby and I started to set up the tent.  The kids looked so cute in their little camp chairs while I prepared our dutch oven dinner and Bruce started a fire.  Of course, this was when Eliza discovered the playground down the road from our campsite and took off.  It took a lot of coaxing to get her to wait until after dinner, but we were successful. 

 
This is when we discovered the "funny" of our camp trip.  In our rush to get on the road, I forgot to pack half of the ingredients of our dinner, and the wood we were given was so green that we couldn't for the life of us get a decent fire going.  Hence, our amazing dutch oven chicken pot pie turned into luke warm gravy over bread.

 At least both kids liked the bread!

We had such dud wood that after an hour of coaxing, babying, blowing, and what have you, we ended up with lots of smoke, half burned logs, and the lamest smores coals imaginable.  Sitting in the near dark did have its advantages.  Not only was it easier to see the stars , but we were quite entertained by the raccoon who bravely entered our camp to snatch up our marshmallows.  Eliza still talks about the raccoon who tried to steal our food.  While talking on the phone to Grandma Richards, she kept saying, "the raccoon steal my food grandma, he steal my marshmallows grandma, my marshmallows."  How cute!! 

 

Early the next morning, we once again tried and tried to start a fire.  Our lame wood struck again.  It's a good thing I decided to grab our camp stove right before we left; otherwise our sausage and eggs wouldn't have come to fruition. 

 

For the afternoon, we decided to hike to the lake and swim.  Even with a map, we got so turned around that our short hike to the lake ended up taking much longer than expected.  We seemed to hike forever.  Zaby fell asleep in the baby bjorn (20+ pounds of dead weight hanging from the front of you makes everything more difficult), and Eliza insisted on walking the entire way, stopping every once in while to watch the bugs, or touch the flowers, etc.  Oh Yes, and she had to be the one to carry her sand buckets.  Needless to say, by the time we got the lake, I was ready for lunch - but guess what we didn't pack with us?  Our lunch!!    Bruce and the kids enjoyed the time at the water, and Zaby and Eliza especially loved the beach area.  I think the two of them could play in the sand all day.  That boy still loves to eat sand. 

 

 After a while, I sent Bruce back to camp to get the car and some food for us to eat lunch there.  Oh yeah, I forgot some of our lunch ingredients at home as well.  He followed the correct trail back, and it only took him 10 minutes to get there.  I guess you could say that we took the "scenic route" on the way there. 

For dinner, I ended up frying our tin foil dinners on our camp stove because our lame wood struck once again.  We headed over to the playground where we were finally successful in breaking Eliza's fear of slides.  Before she wouldn't go near them; now she goes down again and again and again. 

Later, I worked on the fire for a solid hour, and after blowing, blowing, and blowing and constant vigilance, I was able to muster up enough good coals for some excellent smores.  The moment I stopped babying the fire, it went out leaving half burnt logs in the pit.  Shortly after that, our lantern ran out of propane, and we really were in the dark.  We put the kids to bed, then sat up a while talking. 

It did get cold at night.  We had the kids share a twin air mattress.  The first night, Zaby woke up a couple of times.  I heard him moaning and rolling, then grunting and finally screaming.  When I reached over to get him, I couldn't find him in his bed.  He had managed to roll off the top onto his belly, and get his head wedged between the mattress and the side of the tent.  I yanked on his legs and was able to pull him to safety.  He slept between Bruce and I the rest of night and slept quite soundly.  Eliza was out like a light, and didn't move a single muscle.  I double jammied them the next night and everyone slept the whole night through.  Eliza was so excited to sleep in the tent.  She has asked several times since this trip if she could sleep in the tent.  I think I will get both children sleeping bags for Christmas, then we won't have to layer them with blankets and towels to stay warm. 

(Eliza likes to close her eyes when she smiles big)

 

Sunday morning we woke up, packed up, and headed home to attend church in our ward.  Next summer, we will not only camp longer, but we will bring both the truck and the car so I don't have to worry so much about conserving space.  Many important items were forgotten this trip simply because we didn't have enough space in our little Corolla to pack them.  Despite our food and fire mishap, we had a great time - I look forward to doing it again.