Our first camping adventure

Phew...we are home. Hard to believe we were only gone one night. This story starts 7 years ago when I bought Chris a tent for Christmas. Really this was more of a present for me. I had these romantic ideas of us traipsing in the woods and spending the night under the stars. Chris, not being a bug person or sleeping on hard ground person, didn't share the same vision. So the tent has moved around with us and has been living in our garage with no use despite my "hey you want to go camping?" mentions every summer. I've been a little down lately so when I said I wanted to go camping he agreed. I have so many memories of camping as a kid that I couldn't wait to take Penelope. I will say there were some things that I didn't quite prepare for:

1. Packing. I didn't realize how organized my mom was when we were little. It is a lot to pack up if you want to eat more than trail mix! Plus, I thought Chris would enjoy doing some outdoor cuisine so I looked up some recipes. In that respect we made it a little more complicated than hot dogs for dinner and cereal for breakfast.

 Top: Hobo hot dish dinner--ground beef, potatoes, carrots, cream of mushroom soup, lawry' salt
Bottom: Quiche a la Canoe--eggs, veggies, cheese, ritz cracker crust

2. Mud: All of my camping experience was in the wonderful state of AZ. As a kid I had encounters with javelinas, watched for rattlesnakes and scorpions, and was very aware of Smoky the bear and forest fires, but I never had to deal with mud. I didn't think about the crazy amount of rain we've had recently and how this would impact the park. We went to Nerstrand Big Woods State Park in south Minnesota. It was a beautiful place, but we did have a battle of fun vs. mud. Thankfully we only had to deal with rain for the hour we were putting up the tent, but most of the trails were washed out and the ones we did walk were either slippery mud or gloopy get your foot stuck in it mud.

A little muddy after our morning hike.

 3. A 2 year old! Penelope had lots of ups and downs. First, I made the mistake of saying we were going on an adventure like Dora and bringing a map and backpack. Well, she thought we were going to see Dora and Boots. She thought the state camp map was woefully inadequate compared to Dora's "Map". But once we set up the tent she started having a blast:

She called the tent her house

Trying out the sleeping bag

  I was a little surprised how close all the camp sites were together, maybe 6 feet between us and the ones surrounding us. Trying to get a 2 year old to use her inside voice at 6 am when we are obviously outside was a struggle. Right when she woke up and heard all the birds she yelled "birdies!!!"  So after a quick bowl of cereal we convinced her to go for a walk back to the waterfall to let those around us get another hour of sleep. She had fallen in love with the waterfall on our evening hike.

Mmm....cheerios!

Beautiful falls....there was a sign warning against swimming due to the high level of bacteria from fecal matter....ewwww...must be from all the nearby farm land.

Picture from morning hike. It came out of my camera with the sepia toned colors. Must have been the fog. 

Yay, sunshine! We played "grab the sunshine" to keep Penelope hiking.

Catching another ray of sunshine

A little girl in the Big Woods

And of course, marshmallows were a hit! She didn't like to eat them, but she sure liked to help roast them.

"ooooh, fire!!!"

I think overall Penelope had a good time. She did ask multiple times if we could go to a restaurant.. By 8 am this morning she was asking to go home so while Chris cooked and packed up, Penelope and I read about 12 Caillou books (not sure I'll be return them all to the library as a few had a meeting with the mud). By 10 am, she was DONE with camping and was asking to go home and "watch a dvdv at Penny's house" I swear she only watches TV when we are getting ready in the morning, but it is clear there is an addiction to the DVDVs as she calls them.

Oh, and the one other thing she loved were the bathrooms. Luckily they were brand new, totally modern and cleaned often due to the mud being tracked in and out. She is still wearing pull-ups, but this weekend didn't go in them once.. She made it to the potty every time....mainly because she wanted to play with the sink and the hand dryer. Oh well, whatever works!

On our way home we stopped at the town of Northfield. Years ago when I lived in AZ my friend came to Northfield for college. Talk about the opposite of our Arizona home town. It is so quaint. Tons of cafes and little knick-knack kind of shops. Not much was open, but Penelope can say she went potty in 2 of the restaurant bathrooms. (we are really on a tour de potty of Minnesota. She sees a shop and has to go potty immediately)

 Oh, and before I forget, our trusty companion did excellent! To be honest Chris and I were more worried about Cece going crazy about any wildlife and keeping us up in the tent than dealing with Penelope. But Cece did wonderful. Mostly sat around and sniffed the air.

I think we will definitely go camping again. Maybe find a place with swimming and stay a couple of days. It's a lot of work for 1 day! Chris said he's ready to try again in a decade when Penelope doesn't whine so much. Hopefully I can get him out there again in a year!

*I'll try to update the blog more. I'm not doing knitting or reading so it isn't like it is being ignored for other things. Just having a tough time doing the work/life balance and some things get lost in the shuffle.*