We thought a family-reunion, car-camping, back-up-plan-house-across-the-street would be the ideal venue to introduce the young Carroll girls to camping. We set up our old small tent on the deck the week before for Maya to play in and she was immediately intrigued. I wondered how she & Genna would do in a real sleep-in-a-tent campout. We got a large family tent that would be big enough for the air mattress & playpen. The car was packed to the brim and when we arrived at the farm - I realized we forgot the playpen for Genna to sleep in (that's where she sleeps at home). So we just used the infant car seat as her bed and she was not disturbed a bit.
The site: The hay field across the street from Uncle Larry's (back-up-plan-house).
We attempted to set our tent a bit away from the main camp (pictured above) to create the baby-might-cry-at-night zone......it slipped my mind that any night noises my girls could have made would have been drowned out by the Cousin's LATE night revelry.
Genna getting a sleepy ride to Grandma Glista's Garden
OOPs - babies are not supposed to sleep on squishy surfaces... like poorly inflated air mattresses.
Dude - where's my muffin?
The only respite from the HOT sun.
We spent a good part of the day under the blue tarp (whose ceiling kept getting lower & lower). This is FILTHY Maya and HOT Genna on Saturday afternoon (Before we retreated to the cool comfort of the back-up house for a bath & naps.....yes - we CHEATED - but it was that or cook the babies.)
Uncle Richie provided the token hayride.
Maya enjoying the feast
Aaaawwwww...... Maya & Lyla
...probably headed for Uncle Bob's tent which was the "Jumpy Jump" (or "gumpy gump" as Maya would say)
The girl's camping out report...
Maya went in to bed around 9:30-10 each night (darn late-sun-setting Michigan summer nights), but didn't fall asleep until about 11:45. I was surprised that she stayed put and did not try to talk to or come to me. She just laid there whispering to herself, playing with her flashlight, or listening to the conversations from the campfire until she fell asleep.
Genna pretty much did her normal home night-sleep schedule of waking up once (3:30 the 1st night & 5:30 the 2nd). Mama probably got the least sleep of ANYONE, as any rustling of sheets, zippers, or sniffling woke me. So why am blogging right now instead of joining the 3 other Carrolls in a nap on this afternoon of our return?
Overall it was a positive experience - I hope we make an effort to try camping more often.
UPDATE ... on the ride home we asked Maya what her favorite thing about camping was. At first her answer was "the dinosaur fruit snacks" (that Babcia had just given her as we were leaving). Later she says her favorite thing was "coming home". That evening she practically jumped out of her crib at bedtime wanting to sleep with us! (like it was in the tent)
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