Happy campers

This past weekend we went camping at Perrot State Park near Trempeleau, WI. The park is roughly half-way between Madison and Minneapolis and so it was a great place to meet the Hendricks' clan for a fun weekend in the outdoors. I have to admit I was more than a little apprehensive about Zora's first camping trip. We didn't take Owen camping until he was 2 1/2 for fear of him being up all night in the tent while we tried desperately to keep him quiet so he didn't disturb the other campers. Of course, those fears turned out to be completely unfounded with Owen and he has been a great camper from the start and he absolutely loves camping. Which was the reason we were getting ready to take Zora camping at 8 mos - because Owen wanted to go camping and it didn't seem fair to tell him we weren't going to be camping this summer because Zora was too young. More than one person told me they thought we were crazy. And since Zora hit one of her worst stretches of waking up during the night a week before we were supposed to leave, I was definitely having second, third and fourth thoughts about the whole idea. But since Katrina had already reserved 2 campsites we were in for better or worse.

And things definitely started off for the worse. It won't surprise most of you to know that we were not all together organized when friday morning rolled around. Basically, we had not bought food for the trip or packed anything yet. We were hoping to leave by noon and we finally pulled out around 1:30 with every square inch of the car filled with gear and 2 more stops to make before we left town for some essentials we had forgotten to pick up earlier. Around 3:oo pm we were 20 or so miles outside of Madison when Ken says "I think I may have forgotten to pack my sleeping bag." After a few minutes of discussion we concluded that he had indeed forgotten it. He said he would be ok and we proceeded to talk about how we could have forgotten it - it had been on the chair with Owen's sleeping bag afterall. Oh. A bit more discussion and we realize that we had in fact forgotten ALL of the sleeping bags. So we headed back to Madison to get them. After losing an hour to turning around for the bags, we finally reached the campground around 6:30 pm. Owen announced he was "so excited I'm freaking my little mind out." We told Owen we had a new, big tent (love that REI discount!) and as we drove past some of the other sites Owen asked Ken if it was "one of those big tents on wheels." Well, not that big. When we got to our site Katrina already had dinner going so Owen, Zora and I got some food while Ken started setting up our tent (which Owen pronounced was "like a tent hotel" when he saw it). It had been raining off and on throughout the day and the sky was looking pretty gray and just as we got the rainfly on the tent (but not staked down), the rain came. An absolute downpour. So while Ken stood out in the rain trying to stake the rainfly down, the rest of us stayed dry in the tent. Ken was so soaked that he just stayed outside, fetching various things for us from the car and the cooler (toys, diapers, beers, etc). As I said, things did not get off to a stellar start. But the rain stopped just as it was getting close to dusk and the Hendricks' retired to their tent and we actually got Zora and Owen to sleep without much trouble. Owen slept soundly all night and Zora only woke a couple of times briefly before getting up for a bottle a little before 4:30. I, on the other hand, did not sleep well at all waking up off an on all night long. I was just falling back to sleep after Ken put Zora back to sleep after her bottle when we heard this horrible screeching noise followed by a couple of short hoots. I've never heard the call of the very aptly-named screech owl before but I'm sure that is what it was. What a sound. And about 30 minutes later all sorts of interesting birds started singing. First one very loud one with more and more birds joining in as it grew lighter with every passing minute. Just as I started to drift off around 6:30, Zora popped her head up and started talking. Though I had hardly slept and felt pretty lousy, I was pretty impressed by how both Owen and Zora did sleeping in the tent. This camping stuff with an infant is not so hard after all. Not until 8:30 when we tried to get Zora to take a nap anyway. But I won't bore you with all of those details.

Owen and Zora bright-eyed and bushy-tailed after their first night sleeping in the tent.

Ken, not so much.

We had nice weather on Saturday and everyone had a great time playing around camp. Then we all went for a bike ride along the Great River State Trail. Owen insisted on riding his bike instead of riding in the trailer so we kept the ride short, riding a little over 2 miles to the entrance of the Trempeleau Wildlife Refuge and back. Then while Jon, Ken and Natalie went to town to pick up some things, Katrina, Morgan, Owen, Zora and I hiked up the trail to Brady's Bluff. It was a half-mile trail but pretty much went straight up to the 520' high overlook. I had my work cut our for me with Zora on my back in the backpack. I was feeling a lot of muscles I hadn't felt for far too long. I was amazed by the energy of Owen and Morgan as they hiked the whole way without slowing down. And the views from the top were worth the climb (you can see some more pictures of our weekend, including the view from the top over at Katrina's blog). The hike back down was steep and made me more than a bit nervous at times - both watching Owen traverse the steep winding trail and also feeling off-balance myself with the extra weight on my back. But we all made it back down and back to camp for an early dinner, showers and s'mores.

Zora was asleep by 6:30 and Owen by 7:30 (just in time for Zora to wake up from her "nap" and stay up for the next 2 hours!). I slept much better the second night though I was still exhausted when Owen and Zora woke us up at 6:00 am. We didn't do much Sunday morning other than pack up, but that was enough time for Zora to take a big nap (which made packing a challenge) while the older kids played, Morgan and Owen getting a lot of mileage out of the wooden gliders I brought. And enough time for Owen to wander into the middle of a patch of poison ivy.

Zora is a happy camper!

We really had a great weekend and I'm so glad we went. Camping with an infant definitely has its challenges. Especially a mobile infant who was always wanting to get down and crawl around. But both Owen and Zora seem to really love being outside (I think all kids naturally do) and it is fun to watch them enjoy and explore the outdoors. And it is nice for us to have a weekend were we aren't (and can't be) distracted by trying to run errands, clean the house, get on the computer, etc. and we can just spend uninterrupted time together with no real agenda. We are already talking about trying to fit another camping trip in before the weather gets too cold.