Camping

Before I get into all of the details, I'm just going to go ahead and say, CAMPING WITH A ONE YEAR OLD IS NOT FUN!!!!! We've camped when Maisey was 10 months and not walking, and we've camped when Gage was 2, but we've never camped with a one year old and I 100% don't recommend it. 

 The first night we had tin foil dinners! YUM!  The kids loved to "help" with the fire while they waited.

 Then it was smore time! 

Gage didn't quite get the memo about holding it over coals for it to slowly cook. He went straight for the flames every time and lost a lot of marshmallows!

 With Dad's help, they were each able to have a smore!

Miley cuddling with mommy for 2.5 seconds before she was squirming around trying to walk around on the uneven ground and falling, then crying because she had pine needles or dirt on her hands. . . like I said, it wasn't fun!

Telling spoooooky stories 

The next morning, we headed to the lake for the kids to do some fishing. The fishing dock that we had scoped out the night before had a big closed sign on it that morning, so we rented a paddle boat and Dad and the big kids went to fish in the middle of the lake, while I hung back with the sand-hating babe!

Daddy getting a good upper-leg workout 

 The didn't catch anything,

but they still had a great time!

I didn't come with a blanket or toys or anything, because I was expecting to just walk around the dock with her. So, we had to hang in the sand, which she did NOT like. She cried when she noticed there was sand on her hands and then she would try to eat it off, only to cry more when sand got in her mouth . . . repeated for 1 hour!!!

 The only thing I had to keep her occupied were capri suns. I brought one for each kid. Let's just say the big kids never got theirs.

 Once we ran out of capri suns I just sat her in the edge of the water in her clothes so she could splash around. That lasted about 3 minutes.

After I took her to the car to change her clothes and diaper, I called Dad and had him come pick us up in the boat, thinking Miley might like that. She didn't like the life jacket. 

Look, a little smile

We eventually made it back to the campsite for lunch and naps, hallelujah!!!

We ended up going back to the lake for a swim that afternoon. The big kids were so brave and swam all the way out to the middle of the lake and jumped off a platform out there.

 See it waaaaaay out there?

 I thought I cam more prepared this time, with a towel to sit on and more toys and snacks,

 but eventually we reverted back to the capri suns. I think we have a junkie on our hands!

 That night, Dad took the kids on a walk around our loop. We lost one of Miley's shoes, so she is wearing Gage's. She looks so cute and happy here!

 While Dad was busy, mom took the kids to the front of the campsite to dump our garbage. When we got back, we stayed in the van for a while longer to watch a movie (read: for mom's sanity!).

We hiked the sand dunes that were right by our camp site.

 Luckily, I realized we had the front pack in a storage compartment in our van and we were so glad we did. Miley ended up falling asleep, which made the morning enjoyable!

 Shaun and the kids tried riding down the dunes on the sand board but it didn't work too well. They all still had fun trying.

Maisey wanted to visit the Nature Center while we were there. She went to a class about criminals in nature (aka, animals) and it made her pretty nervous.

 At the end of the class, they painted pet rocks. 

On the way home, we stopped by Sea Lion Caves.

 This is a pretty cute family pic!

All of the sea lions were on that center rock in the cave.

We seriously picked the most beautiful day to stop at the beach!

There were definitely some fun moments of this trip, but overall I think we will remember it as "that one time we went camping with a one year old" and we will be sure to never do that again!