camping memories

Because I've been a royal failure at keeping a detailed account of my kids' first experiences, I intend to share my memories of those firsts as I chart our lives here. Certain important firsts include Ella learning to walk when she was 11 months old while we were waiting for the ferry to hitch a ride over to Daufuskie Island for a wedding. Summit was about the same age as Ella, but he was determined to walk earlier...thus he began cruising around at 6 months old! He was into everything right from the start. Ella's fiirst word was 'Da Da' and Summit's was 'Ma Ma.' At least I got one of those! This could go on and on....

One of my favorite family memories was the first time we took the kids camping. It was Labor Day weekend of 2008, and we went to Black Forest Family Campground, a sweet, family-oriented place just a short distance south of Brevard, NC. Now, Matt and I have spent more time camping than sleeping in hotels, and our style up until this trip had been extremely minimalistic; we only brought exactly and minimally what was needed to get by. This trip, however, was drastically different. We packed an ENTIRE minivan full of all of the comforts of home...we even brought the sound machine so Summit could sleep through the night in his pack n play! The kids had the portable DVD player to watch movies while we made dinner. They could rest on the down comforter on the king-sized blow-up mattress in the MASSIVE brand-spanking-new Kelty tent after we got back from a hike to a waterfall. Yes, this was a serious departure from the backcountry, carry only what you need camping trips from years past. But it was awesome!

We had yummy meals cooked over the fire pit and on the camp stove. We went swimming in the pool by the main house and played on the playground. We went on hikes to beautiful waterfalls in Dupont State Park and in Pisgah National Forest. (The kids had so much fun. They kept up amazingly on what would be pretty long hikes for an average person.) We made delicious smores over the fire at night and chased fireflies at dusk. We told camp stories. When Summit refused to sleep in the pack n play, we snuggled all together on the cozy air mattress with all of the pillows and down comforters from home. It was an amazing experience, and I know that Matt and I were happy to learn that our kids enjoy being outdoors and experiencing the beauty of nature as much as we do.