Camping--Sort-of

Last weekened we took Gwen on her first camping trip. We went to Duck Creek, a place I'd been going to for as long as I can remember. It was beautiful up there, of course, but a little colder than usual. We planned on staying Friday through Tuesday but ended up truncating our stay on the mountain a few nights.

I had high hopes that the kids would love it up there, but I think those hopes were a little too high considering that both kids were sick! To be fair though, I thought Lincoln was at the tail end of his cold and Gwen hadn't even started a cold when we left Friday morning-something she actually manifested after about an hour into our trip. I subsequently started manifesting my own cold by mid-afternoon. I should have known we were in for it- nevertheless, we pressed on.
We got up on the mountain just in time to make dinner for everyone and set up camp.
We got the kids ready for bed, bundled up many times over and tucked them both in, Lincoln in a kid-sized sleeping bag (thanks Mom Hills!) and Gwen in her car seat.
We went to bed not long after when Lincoln started crying and we ran back to the tent to see what was wrong. Lincoln had just wriggled out of his sleeping bag and needed help back in. This was the first of many, many times he would do that.

I think Zach and I slept a total of two hours that night--every time Lincoln coughed I thought about what a horrible mother I was making my sick little boy sleep out in the cold. Both kids ended up on our tiny full-sized air mattress and I was extremely grateful to see the sun after that endless night. We decided we couldn't have another night like that one and had decided to go to Pine Valley for the rest of our trip when my sweet sister offered to let us stay in her trailer that night. Zach decided that he would sleep outside still with Lincoln while I slept inside. I slept a little better- when I finally got Gwen to sleep, but Zach had pretty much a repeat of the previous night. So, on Sunday we decided we would go to Pine Valley where we could stay in a warm cabin and get a chance to visit with Grandma Shamo who goes up every summer to enjoy the rest of our vacation. Even so, we were able to get in a few nice walks up there and celebrate Lincoln's 2nd birthday with everyone before we left.







Pine Valley was beautiful as well and ultra-relaxing. We got some good sleep and had a great time visiting with Grandma Shamo.