The Camping Adventures Begin

Round 1.....

The weather report was ominous, but something like the weather was not going to keep our adventure from happening.  No way, no how!

Friday began with a nature hike at WildwoodPark in Puyallup. It was international mud day and we proudly celebrated it in grand style. On our wild trek adventure we spied a slug which we examined with our private eye loupe (more to come on this) and a few flowers that we enjoyed looking at and then we began collecting "walking sticks" which eventually turned into just plain collecting sticks, and as many as they could carry and con my friend Kimberly into letting them cart off to the stream area of the park.  Bear and Bethy were totally into this activity, the littles with us watched in awe and the two older girls forged ahead. I think these two girls would love to go someplace where they would be allowed to create and build whatever they wanted out of nature finds. I know for sure my wild adventure child would.  I wish we had a prime location for this in our own back yard, but alas we don't.  I am not convinced the local nature parks would be overly keen on this.  *grin*; Has anyone else ever done something like this? My thoughts would that I and other parents would just be facilitators, helping where we can and making sure utter chaos didn't develop, but otherwise see what the kids come up with and how they could work together to solve problems.

Bear and her friend Bethy decided after our trek through the wilds to return to the creek and design a beaver dam, they said they were beavers. They gathered sticks and mud and carried them down the creek a bit and attempted to build a dam. I do think the task soon became pure mud play soon and water play as well, but the girls were so cute talking about the beavers and the dam they were making. I was just going with the flow and making sure no one got hurt.

Mud Play at it's finest!

That evening our camping adventure began. I didn’t keep the camera beside me all the time, in fact before I could take pictures of our camp site the camera ended up in the tackle box and I just didn’t think to dig it out again. We stayed at Taidnapam Park near Morton. I loved this campground. Our tent site was secluded enough to feel like we were in the woods. Sarah’s comment several times during our two days there was that “nature was all around us” of course this included some crows which snatched a bag of very nice cigars the hubs brought along to enjoy. He rarely has a chance to enjoy them and fishing is one of those times.

We fished, we biked, and we camped. I wish I could say it was a fabulous time with no learning curve at all, but of course being new to camping, we had and have much to learn. Yes we had buckets of fun as well. When else can you sit and hold hands with your love in front of a fire while getting soaked from the rain. I mean this in the fondest of ways. I was not disheartened, nor am I shy of camping because we encountered a weekend of rain, well, only Saturday afternoon and night. *smile*

• We need a taller air mattress; these old bones don’t do well in the middle of the night crawling over a spouse trying to go use the facilities. Changes are in the works.

• It rained, a lot. So we are buying a canopy and are looking at one from REI.

• We need a bigger tarp under the tent.

• We need to take less stuff that we don’t need. This will mean more prep work on one end, but it will be doable.

• We don’t need all the cooking stuff we took, but we do need a better pancake turner.

•  Make a check list a week before hand and don’t rely on memory.

• Have everything in the living room ready to go at least the day before, and go through it making sure you remember what’s on your list.

• Quarters. Yes, needed for showers.

• Dish rags and dish towels.

• Extra rubber bands. Things get lost when you are camping.

• We need an LED lantern and a couple bungee cords.

• Make sure you double check that you have batteries before you leave Costco.

• A water jug; we discussed this before going and decided we didn’t need it but I think we do.

Looking at camp map

I know we are still going to need to change things, and we want our camping time to be extended until early October and begin in April. It was fun to see the joy on our daughter’s face, even when trying to roast a hot dog on a fire with pouring down rain.

All this did not negate the serious fun that was had. The TV was not missed, the computer was not missed. Not one iota. Bear also caught her first fish, threw her first fish back to do as the hubs says--make more fish, baited her own hook and tried to make friends with a chipmunk. She played baseball with another little girl and her brother, roasted a hotdog on an open fire and only fell off her bike once, while going downhill. Admitedly scary. We are all looking forward to our next adventure in camping.

Do you camp with children? Share your tales and advice.