So we went camping on Saturday.  We could have gone up Friday night but in addition to being nervous about how Liam would deal with sleeping in the Great Outdoors, we had some shopping that needed to be done Friday evening and Kile wasn’t able to get off work early enough so that we could have been up there by any reasonable time.  So Saturday it was.  Our friends had JUST bought a toy hauler and invited us to stay in it with them.  Which really sold it for us because sleeping in a tent?  Not gonna happen.  Not these days, at least.  So all we needed to do was pack up some food, some clothes and some diapers and head on our way.

When we got there, Liam was very unsure of the whole thing.  Much like how he felt about grass last year, he was hesitant to walk on pine needles.  Goofball.  We set up his super yard so that he could adjust to nature without running into oncoming traffic.  Always a good plan.

The weather was cool, but not cold.  Spring was springing up all over and the hues of green really caught my eye.  I couldn’t stop looking at them.  Evie fell into a routine, though she decided she wanted constant nursing in that routine as well.  The girl is a touch spoiled, methinks.  So between breaks to nurse in the van and the toy hauler, we were able to sit out in the air and soak it all in.  I think she enjoyed it.

Meanwhile, Liam (whom we had put a sweatshirt on and who stole my friend’s hat) was developing a fond fascination with the dirt.

It was the greatest thing… well… EVER.  We don’t go outside a lot around here, especially in the winter when it’s nasty out.  So the poor kid is really kind of a newbie when it comes to things like dirt and pine needles and rocks and whatever else.  He loved it though.  And he made a right mess of himself while he was at it.

Our one set of friends had their own (enormous!) tent set up to sleep in and there was this teeny tiny tent set up next it for the boys to sleep in.  Three boys, from 8 and 7 years old, were going to be sleeping in this tent.  I harbored suspicions that maybe ONE could fit in it, but all three went in pretty easily.  Color me impressed!

As I mentioned before, we were able to stay in the toy hauler.  There was a lot of room in that thing!  And it cemented my notion that having a trailer or camper or some sort is pretty much the ONLY way to camp.  We were able to easily fit two families in there, and could have squeezed another one in if we needed to.  And did I mention it had a microwave?  And a bathroom?  Oh yes.  LOVE.

As you can see, we brought a rugged stroller (one we’re testing out) and it had a tray on it.  We used it as a makeshift high chair for Liam and he could also sit in it while we had campfires going and of course we took a walk or two.

I love that picture.  I cannot possibly tell you how much I love that picture.  Such is my love.  Anyhow, as the sun went down it was time to start thinking about things like campfires.  Or, in this group’s case, a bonfire.  There was a sort of “master fire ring” that the bonfire was built in.  It started off humbly enough…

Lots of little scraps of wood, a few pinecones, lighting a paper plate or two to help get the thing going… Before too long, we had something a little more like this:

Which, you know, was sufficient for roasting some s’mores on.  Which we did.  YUM.  Then, the guys (and some gals) decided they wanted to see what would happen if you took a bottle of 151 and spit a mouthful into the fire.  At that point, our little group retreated back to our particular campsite (this was a group camping trip) with the kids and started a much more sedate fire in our little firepit.

Liam went down to sleep easy enough (if you call a 1/2 hour process involving infant’s motrin easy) and didn’t even stir when some of the other of our party entered the trailer.  I retired before long with Evie and made the colossal mistake of not changing her diaper and into her sleeper before going in.  Because I had no flashlight on me and it was dark as pitch in there.  Seriously, you could close your eyes and see just as much as you could with them open.  I was hesitant to turn on any lights because I did NOT want to wake up any small children.  Particularly those whose names start with “L”.

Kile came in not too much later and I gave in and asked him for the diaper, sleeper and to turn a light on because putting on a diaper in pitch blank is NEVER a good idea.  I don’t care how much of a pro you think you are.  Evie threw a pretty good fit at that point, because she had been so peacefully sleeping but before long she was back fast asleep.

However, once Kile settled in and started snoring, this woke up Liam.  I think the snoring scared him, at least at first.  Every time Kile would drift off and start to snore a little, it would wake Liam up crying. We didn’t want him to cry, since we were sharing this trailer with other people.  After getting up and down no less than 10 times, Kile gave up and took Liam out of the trailer.  He ended up putting him in his carseat with a blanket and then laid back one of the seats in the front of the van to sleep in himself.  Poor guy.

I didn’t sleep much myself, mostly because I was worried about Liam and just on edge.  I guess I didn’t drink enough alcohol.  Heh.  Evie was a champ though, and slept through until dawn.  She probably slept the best of any of us.  Well, besides Harry, was snug as a bug in that teeny tent with his friends.

Once morning rolled around, we all huddled in the warm (it has a heater!) trailer and had a yummy breakfast of pancakes and bacon.  And then, alas, it was time to start to think about packing up.  Bummer.

Truly, despite the wakeful night, we had a great time.  I’d really like to go camping again sometime, even.  We need to brainstorm a good routine for Liam at night.  If worse comes to worse, at least we know he’ll sleep in the carseat!  We came home around noon and after giving Liam and Kile a shower (Liam was, once again, covered in dirt), we all fell into bed for much needed naps.  Well, except for Harry who got reacquainted with his Mario Kart Wii.  I think a mark of a good camping trip is how tired you are when you get home, don’t you think?

So what did you all do over the weekend?  Did you all enter my BlogHer ‘08 registration giveaway?  You have two more days left to enter!  Get on that!

You should totally go check out the rest of the pictures from the camping trip!

Tags: camping, Evelyn, Liam, photography, pictures, sleep deprived
Filed under Family Circus |

Wow. Last night was the worst of all. My child is stubbornly rigid about his routines and last night was no different. Kile put him to bed, since I was out at the grocery store with my mother in law. As such, he forgot to give our mad teether a dose of motrin before putting him down. I can hear all you moms out there groaning along with me. This child doesn’t do teeth one or two at a time. Ho no. No, he’s putting through SIX right now. And four of those are molars. So putting a child like that to bed without motrin should be a punishable offense, right? At least, the offending party should be made to get up with said child when he inevitably wakes up in the middle of the night, miserable. Right? Wrong, apparently. Liam woke, cried and then dozed off again continually for several hours after we went to bed until just before 2 am he decided that he wasn’t going to doze back off again. So I got up with him. I had to wait for the motrin to kick in before going back to bed so I was up for a while. I got to see at least one full episode of “Angel” on TNT though, if that tells you anything. He cried off and on for the rest of the night as well, but slept better.

Meanwhile, I’m still struggling with the suddenly unbearably uncomfortable bed and getting restful sleep on it is getting to be pretty laughable. It seems no matter where or how I lay, there’s always something sharp or angled poking into me, be it my own arm or the bed itself. I’ve said before that this mattress sucks, but it’s never sucked this bad. I don’t know how I’m going to make it through the rest of this pregnancy, I really don’t.

Some yahoo took a wrong turn onto our cul de sac this morning, right after Kile’s alarm went off (so it was probably about 6:30, I’m guessing). I’m guessing he through the street actually connected to something at the other end because he tore up and then seemed surprised when the road, you know, ENDED. He laid on the breaks, spun the wheel, squealed the tires and ended up plowing through the rocks in our neighbor across the street’s landscaping. Niiiice. Tell me that didn’t just about give me a freaking heart attack. We totally need one of those “Not a Through Street” signs, I don’t know why we don’t have one.

So “Halo 3″ comes out today. I’m pretty depressed about this. We lack both the game (duh) and an Xbox360 (pretty important if you want to play it, of course). Meanwhile, I’m dying to know how the story ends. It’s almost like with “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” (but not quite). I’m so tempted to look up spoilers online (I know there are some out there) but have resisted so far. Mostly. Okay, I did read that review that the San Jose Mercury News did, but it didn’t really reveal anything. I don’t know when I’ll get to play it, but I’m hoping I won’t have to wait too long. Considering the price of an Xbox360, I’m not going to hold my breath.

Hey, I upgraded WordPress last night. Can’t tell, can you? That’s okay. I can hardly tell myself. There’s some nifty new features, such as integrated tagging. But I’m so lazy, I don’t know if I can keep up tagging. I’m giving it a shot for this post, at least. It also has some more advanced visual editor quicklinks, which I’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting for. Also kinda dig the update notifications on the plugins, since I am currently running about a billion of them and it can be hard to keep track of them all. Other than that? Nothing too groundbreaking. When are they going to release a WordPress that will just type my posts for me? That would rock.

I don’t know if I’m going to get a nap this morning or not. Liam is once again in the closet, snoozing away (or so I believe since all is quiet on the baby monitor). But I’m afraid to go up there for fear of waking him. Seriously, last night traumatized me. Even so, I’m about dead on my feet here and if I don’t get a nap I’m afraid of what will happen.  Someone might just get eaten.

Thoughts Aside
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Tags: Halo, Liam, sleep deprived, teething, WordPress
Filed under Boring Site Stuff, General Snark, L'il Liam, That's Entertainment |