Impromptu Camping

A newly finished post from July 11th ...

Chad called at 10:00 yesterday morning (while Natalie and I were eating breakfast because my sweet girl slept until 9:30) and asked if we wanted to go camping tonight. Hold up. What exactly was my husband asking? Allow me to translate: Hi, honey, would you like to ....

• Sleep in a tent - essentially on the ground - while pregnant AND with an almost-two-year-old?
  
• Entertain an almost-two-year-old around a campfire, large rocks, and annoying bugs?
  
• Pack enough food (and variety of food) to feed two adults and an almost-two-year-old for at least three meals and snacks in between?

My response, "Sure, I'll try anything once." We packed and headed out in the late afternoon. The campground and campsite were great, and the tent set-up was flawless. For dinner we roasted hot dogs and enjoyed fruit salad. Natalie played with her Little People, ate rocks, fell off the picnic table, ... basic toddler stuff. And we went for a walk along a mostly dry river bed before roasting marshmallows and calling it a night.

After about 12 hours in the great outdoors, Chad asked another question, "It's going to be at least five years before we try this again, isn't it?"

Honestly, it wasn't anywhere near that awful. Here are a few of the more memorable moments:

It took Natalie about two hours to fall asleep in the tent. All three of us went to bed (or sleeping bag) at the same time. In hindsight, we should've done a more "normal" bedtime routine and got her settled inside the tent. And then we should've hung out by the campfire and enjoyed some alone time while she fell asleep. Instead, she wiggled around in between us and had a hard time going to sleep because of the excitement of having us there.

I had to relieve my bladder about a bazillion times. Hey, that's what pregnant ladies do; I couldn't help it! The walk to the "pit toilet" wasn't bad - in daylight or even dusk - admittedly, the name is awful and the smell not so nice either. But in the middle of the night, there was no way I was going to stumble around like bear bait! Not even with the headlamp that Chad provided. Thanks, honey, now I can look like a dork while projecting a 12-inch radius of light and signaling the bears to my exact location! And so at some crazy hour of pitch-blackness, I asked Chad to go with me - away from the tent - so I could squat and get some much-needed bladder relief. I figure two humans must be more intimidating to bears, right? Besides, I needed someone to watch my back ... quite literally ... my bare, white little backside! Following my lead in his groggy state, Chad managed to scoot to the door of the tent ... and then zipped it closed behind me! I was like, what are you doing? Leaving me out here to die? He, of course, assured me I would be fine - he was watching. Yeah, I wasn't' even slightly reassured. So I tiptoed about two feet and dropped drawers within maybe a foot of the tent. I really had to go, and brave hubby left me no option.