Camping with Cooper

It's been at least four years since the hubs and I went camping. We thought Coop was the perfect age to do so now! We wanted to one week this summer but it ended up raining so we pushed it off.

Anyhow, last weekend our sitter took off work Thursday-Friday and the weather looked decent for mid-October, so hubs and I took off work on Friday so we could hang with the little man and take him camping.



Unfortunately we could only stay one night, since I had our family photos booked for Sunday :/ We had fun, but as I told hubs, camping is way too much work for only one night! I looked into cabin rentals but none of the places around here would do that for just one night either. So we loaded up the tent, mattress, pillows, firewood and a bunch of other stuff and away we went on Friday!

We camped at a state park we had never been to before {although we'd been to the area several times} and it was gorgeous. It was about an hour and a half drive, which was just perfect.

Of course, about an hour into the road trip we realized neither of us had grabbed the air pump that was plugged into the wall, sitting on the kitchen counter. Whoops.

And unfortunately it didn't stop there. We borrowed a heater from a friend that hooked up to a propane tank, but the blower needed an electric cord ... which we forgot {thank goodness it didn't get too cold we required it!} Also when we went shopping the night before, I didn't grab hamburger buns or American cheese since we had plenty at home but I forgot to pack them. And we can't forget the fact that I also failed to bring along a spatula or ANY utensil for grilling. Ugh.

Thankfully we got through and can now laugh at it. There weren't many people camping, but we set up next to the sweetest retired couple and they had an air pump. It required pumping with your foot, but was much better than sleeping on the ground or trying to blow up the mattress. As for the food ... well, we can smash a soda can and flatten it to sort of resemble a flipper. Ha!



Once we arrived and got set up Friday night, we mostly just ate and enjoyed the campfire. Coop and I read a little but he started acting tired around 8:45 so we all went to the tent. I figured it would be way too much work and I would risk waking him if I got up so I just stayed in bed, while hubs enjoyed the camp fire a bit longer.

Of course Coop didn't allow us to sleep too late Saturday morning, so after breakfast we decided to let him burn some energy. There was a short wooded trail to get to the river, so we walked down to a gravel bar and he and his daddy skipped/threw rocks in the river.

Since we were stuffed the night before and didn't get to make our smores, we had them for a Saturday morning snack. Cooper was hilarious and didn't want the smore, just marshmallows but "not too hot" and insisted on eating from the stick!

We finally got everything packed up and were on the road by around 2 p.m. Overall, we had a great time and I can't wait to take our little man camping again {but for more than a day. And you better bet I'll make a good list of things to take next time, too!}

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