Camping Adventure

We went camping last week. For me, it was the first time going camping since having children. For the Pixie, it was the first time going camping EVER. We had a blast.
The campground was this little place called Lake Powhatan, right outside of Asheville. A little over 4 hours of driving for us, and about 6 hours of driving for our friend Anne and her family. Another friend, Ellie, was supposed to come as well, but her van broke down - fortunately BEFORE she left town - and she wasn't able to come.
How was the first camping adventure with the kids? It was awesome.
We had campfires

We made s'mores every night.

We played with glow sticks

and rocks

We made ice cream 

And the kids got dirtier than I knew was possible.

It was a blast.

We also learned quite a bit. We learned the value of melatonin after a couple of nights of the Pixie being far too excited about sleeping in a tent to actually go to sleep. We found that silicone hot pads are better over a fire than cotton ones, and that fireplace tools would have been excellent to have around. We learned that Niall would rather run barefoot on gravel than wear shoes, and that Anne can climb a tree in a skirt and flip flops. Anne and I figured out how to hang a huge tarp over most of our site when a sudden rain storm drenched us on our last night there, and we made food with fire all week. 

Another big thing we learned is that our tent is not quite adequate for 5 people, even if one of those people is very small. lol We fit, barely, but the sleeping arrangements were comical.

The brown outline represents the edge of the tent. The boys' mats didn't go all the way to the bottom, so that's where the random flotsam (shoes, clothing, flashlights, glowsticks, etc) accumulated. 

John was on the far left. Eleri insisted on sleeping (when she did sleep) perpendicular to him with her feet in his face. Niall was on the next mat over, with Rowan on the far right. I curled up in the space that was left. I woke up with Niall's booty in my face too many times to count, and got kicked by all three kids often. Once I woke up to find Rowan ON TOP of Niall and had to shove him off. It doesn't really look all that cramped when you look at that drawing, but stick figures are misleading. We take up a little more space than they do.

We all agree that camping was awesome and we are going to go again. Camping with Anne and family needs to be at least an annual event. But we also all agree that before we go again, we're gonna need a bigger boat. I mean, tent.

I took a bunch of pictures not seen here. If you'd like to see the whole set, just go here.