Into the Woods

Someone in our family got a wee bit stressed out last week with all the unpacking.  It felt like everything was a disaster and she felt lots of pressure (all self-inflicted) to make it look perfect RIGHT NOW and there were two little people that were not overly helpful with the process.  On Thursday night that person (who will remain nameless) had a little meltdown and actually looked exactly like this:

Realizing that an intervention was necessary, Bryan declared that we were going camping.  He had Friday off but had to go in for a few hours in the morning to finish some projects.  I got us all packed up (a little grudgingly, I'll be honest) then we were on the road by 11.  We stopped at Wendy's for the girls to have their first frosty's and for me to get 2 large DP's (a happy accident/miscommunication that definitely added to my general happiness/pleasantness.)  As we drove west through the greenest green hills (a Marylander would call them mountains, but Bryan wasn't buying it) I started to relax- it was so beautiful.

We arrived, set up our campsite, then had to coax the girls out of the tent for some exploring.  We went for a walk along the Potomac, threw rocks in the water, and Bryan fished for a bit.  We saw a mama and baby deer which was one of the highlights of the trip.  It was beautiful but veryveryvery hot + humid.

Back at the campsite we were hungry, but it was way too hot to start a fire and cook our hotdogs so we ate snacks, read books, and played with a ball for a while.  Finally at 8 the sun started to go down and we built a fire, ate dinner and made s'mores then got the girls ready for bed.  Jilly fell asleep quickly but Mattie held out for a long time.  We could hear her singing for a while and occasionally she would call out "Daddy, I in da tent!"  Eventually she fell asleep and by the time Bryan and I went to bed it was blessedly cold.  We didn't sleep much because it was a crowded tent and SO loud out there in the woods (crickets, cicadas, frogs, etc.) and I was constantly covering the girls up with blankets.   

The girls were up with the sun and we were all not in our most pleasant moods thanks to the late night and not sleeping very well.  We had brought our dvd player so we convinced the girls to watch a movie in the tent for a while so we could sleep a little longer but eventually we gave up and got up for breakfast.  We had a spectacular breakfast of pop tarts + bananas + leftover hotdogs + eventually a few toasted marshmallows (campers of the year for sure.)  

Shortly after arriving on Friday Bryan said "we need to camp a lot more and toughen these girls up" (I have no doubt that I was included in the "these girls.")  Mattie would have a mini panic-attack every time she saw a moving creature, no matter how small.  But on Saturday morning the girls fell in love with a caterpillar and named him Tico so that's definite progress.  And Jilly was brave enough to walk across a little log over the stream.  We'll take what we can get.

After breakfast we packed everything up, went swimming at the campground pool and played on the playground then each got to choose an ice cream treat before heading home.  I'll be honest- it was nice to get away and fun to all be together for a day, but I'm not eager to camp again soon.  There was a lot of complaining (by all of us) and next time we'd probably A) try to go when it's not quite so hot and B) probably go with some friends to add a little more excitement/entertainment.  But, I'm glad we went and glad we have this memory.  As soon as we got home the girls asked me to set up their little tent in the playroom and they've been playing "camping" ever since so I'm glad to know we didn't traumatize them.