Last weekend we decided to take our babe camping for the first time. As it turns out, she really likes tents. AND as it ALSO turns out tents are great babysitters. Just throw a few toys in there and make sure there's nothing she shouldn't have lying around and VOILA! Large and enclosed play place in which to roam free while mommy and daddy set up camp. Overall she did great! Especially considering the hot sticky weather, the extremely loud rainstorm in the middle of the night (she didn't even wake up!!) and the absolutely ridiculous amount of bugs.
Seriously, the bugs. The bugs! The hubs and I would exclaim things to each other like, "I don't think the bugs have EVER been this bad before!" But then we would remember that time last summer when we were camping with friends and the bugs were so bad that we played games inside the tent instead of having a bonfire, and that other time a few years ago when we were spending the summer up at camp and the bugs were so bad one week that we didn't spend any time AT ALL outside of our cabins once the sun went down.
So never mind, they have been bad before.
But this weekend! They were with us while we were swimming. While we were hiking. While we were eating. The hubs built us a lovely bonfire after baby girl went to sleep during which I chose to cover myself and my chair completely with mosquito netting and sit very still, silently willing the skeeters to fly on by. The hubs was mocking at first but soon found himself under there with me. And although being snuggled to your hubsie by a fire is usually very nice, when you are covered with many layers that include hooded sweatshirts, socks, long pants, bug spray and mosquito netting, AND sitting as close to the fire as you can bear while STILL being eaten alive in close to eighty degree weather...well let just tell you that it gets very hot and I found myself saying, "when can we go to bed?"
It wasn't all bad though! The highlights included swimming with our girl (she LOVES to SWIM! And SAND! Quick, let's move sand from one place to another all day long!!), all of us lounging around in our tent bug free once the afternoon breeze started blowing through, rubbing sunscreen all over Paisley's scalp when we forgot her hat on one of our trips to the beach thus bringing back crazy old man hair, putting our Pinterest skills to the test and roasting cinnamon rolls over the fire in empty orange halves (UM DELICIOUS. Way to go Pinterest!), watching the baby girl have an absolute ball spending so much time outside, and lots of good downtime for long chats.
SO. Without (very much more) further ado, the pictures! I managed to avoid the camera for the most part, seeing as I had a row of cherry sized mosquito bites neatly lined up across my forehead which, although I can't be sure because I didn't look in a mirror, most likely made me look like a chunk of walking cauliflower. Good thing I'll never actually know since the hubs is far too kind to admit such a thing to my face.
Paisley went to sleep as soon as we started hiking. That's her yellow hat blending into the scenery.
So there you have it! We are going again in September - if you have any great camping-with-a-baby tips that I should know, feel free to share!
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