Camping!

We went camping last weekend as a family and had a ton of fun together. We packed up Saturday morning and went over to Cape Lookout on the coast. After careful review of all the open campsites we decided on what Tyson claimed to be "the best campsite in the whole place". I think he may have been right...well, at least it was the best one for us. It had grass and a hedge of bushes around it so that Kai was pretty well contained (which is always a plus!). We set up camp and then headed over to the beach. We hung out there all afternoon and were blessed with yet another beautiful day on the Pacific Northwest coast. We had lots of fun playing in the water and digging in the sand--and do I mean digging. Tyson decided we should dig a hole to China so we could see The Cube. I agreed that it was a grand idea and Kai joined us because, well, it involved digging in the sand. Although we did not make it to China or The Cube, we did dig a good size whole that we then watched fill up with water...oh the glorious entertainment! Here are a few pics of our fun on the beach:

After a while we headed back to camp to make dinner which was delicious...but isn't all food when you are camping? We took a walk around the campground to try to get the remainder of the energy out of Kai. And what do you know it worked. When it was time for bed we bundled Kai up, gave him kisses, put him in the sleeping bag, zipped up the tent and --- tada! not a sound, not a movement. The crazy kid went right to sleep. I literally pictured having to zip up the tent and let him run around like a wild animal in there until he fell asleep...but no, not a peep. Too good to be true right? Right.

We went to bed a little while later and snuggled into the tent with Kai (we had zipped our bags together). After getting hit in the face by Kai 4 times in the first two minutes I finally found a comfortable position. Just as I was about to doze off...or perhaps I had for 5 minutes or so I am awakened by crying from our boy. We reassure him he is okay but he is in that asleep crying mode and eventually I pick him up and rock him and he is okay...until I put him down again. At that point Ty suggests he is too warm. "How can he be too warm...we are camping", is what I was thinking in my head. But eventually I decided to take off his super thick sleeper and extra socks and that does the trick. It was a classic case of overdressing--guilty as charged!

This might be the end of my story but no. Kai is now happy as a clam but also quite awake having gotten just enough sleep to feel refreshed. He did lay still but he began to go through his entire vocabulary:

"beesh" (beach)
"wawa" (water)
"bee" (any type of bug he sees)
"babble babble babble" (I have no idea)
"bu duc" (big truck...said in a low "manly" voice)
"mama"
"dada"
"woo, woo" (fire siren noise...the worst and loudest!)
(and plenty of others I can't remember because--I was trying to sleep)
Me: "Kai you have to go to sleep...shh"
Kai: "shh" (over and over and over again until we would look at him...then a laugh)


It went on like this for what seemed like hours but it was really probably only an hour or so until he finally fell back asleep. I was then unable to sleep because it started to rain and my baby is stripped down to his diap, but he seemed fine and I was warm so he was probably okay too. Then I kept waking up from either a hit in the face or because he had creeped up out of the bag, and again, diap only...so I would pull him back down. We woke up bright and early to Kai trying to be quiet because he sees us sleeping...so in his not so quiet voice we hear "shh, shh", until he got our attention--clever kid:)

It was a long night but oh so funny and way worth it for the memories! However, we did pass on the hike we were going to go on and headed home for some actual rest. It was a fun weekend hanging together as a family celebrating our first official "Daddy doesn't work Saturdays anymore" Saturday!

Here are a few pics from around camp:


Thanks to my boys for the fun memories!