Long weekend camping

We just returned from 4 days camping at Cultus with friends and family. We went the traditional route of sleeping in a tent and cooked all our food on a propane stove. The weather was 30+ basically everyday, but thanks to all the trees our site was cool and shady most of the time. The only downer was that there was a swimmers itch warning posted for the lake, so most of us opted to stay out and not risk getting it. Our friends brought up their kiddy pool though and the two toddlers on the trip very much enjoyed splashing around in the afternoons.

I love camping, because it forces you to be outside 24/7, breathing in all that fresh mountain air. You are away from  your phones and TVs and spend all your time socialising, playing games or sitting around a campfire watching the flames flicker.

I know Noah had a fantastic time. He thought the tent was pretty funny and had a great time crawling around in the dirt and being around those who love him so much. I'm sure all that fresh air was good for him too.

I must say though, camping with a 1 year old was rather difficult and I am not sure I would do it again. I will absolutely camp again, but I think we'll wait until our kids are around the age of 2. Noah slept wonderfully in his pack n play in the tent, that wasn't the problem. It was more the extra work that he required when it came to making his (different) meals and the fact that he is in between crawling and walking. I found that as a mom I had very little downtime to read or play games. We had extra hands around which was helpful, but I still felt like my day was spent preparing his food, cleaning up, preparing a bottle, cleaning up, changing his diaper, throwing it away, repeat, repeat, repeat. Yes that is alot of my day here at home, but at home he can play around without me having to worry about him poking his eye out with a stick or trying to swallow a rock.

There was also the issue of what we could do once Noah went to sleep. He was exhausted and was out cold between 6:30-7:00pm each night, which isolated one of us to our campsite which needed to be kept fairly quiet. Between our family and friends we had three campsites, so it was easy for everyone to just hang out at one of the other sites so Noah could sleep. But then Matt and I had to take turns staying in our site while the other went to make smores. It was fine, but just not ideal.

All in all, I am glad we went. It's always wonderful to spend several days away from work and home, and It was quite cozy in that tent at night, huddled up close together with our little family.