Cousin Camping

 

This summer we had a wonderful visit from my sister, her husband, and their daughter Evelyn. Evie is Kaylee’s one and only cousin, and they live 16 hours apart so they only see each other once or twice a year. My sister and her family came down for the 4th of July, and we decided to go on a very short camping trip.

 

The girls had a wonderful time! They mostly played with ponies and explored in the trees, even adding in a bit of pretend “hiding from someone”.

 

We only had one scary incident where Kaylee led Evie down to the lake unsupervised, and scared the daylights out of everyone!

The lake was FREEZING, but we swam anyways….and I realized that I can not swim in cold water.

I loved our little trip together, and cant wait for more little cousins so we can expand these trips into sibling/cousin “reunions”.

Family Camping

Saturday morning Robert, Kaylee, and I were relaxing and playing in the pool, trying to figure out how to make the best of one of our last weekends as a family of three. Kaylee loves her pool, but I don't think she would have had fun for long with no one else her size to play with.

Kaylee trying to fit into the camping chair bag.

Once she did, she kind of looked like a mermaid!

The camp chair brought up the idea of going camping. We have been wanting to go for a while with Kaylee. I wanted to go before the babies came because after they are here we wont be able to go very easily for a year or more. So we decided to pack everything up, get fishing licenses, and head up the mountain.

We found a great little spot, with one area for the fire and food stuff

And a very secluded one for the tent!


It was so nice to have it away from prying eyes! You couldn't even see it from the road 6-8 feet away.

The tent ended up missing its poles! They somehow didn't make it back in the bag from the last camping trip. Luckily Robert had thought to buy some rope when we stopped at the grocery store before we left, so he tied the tent up to some trees. I can't imagine what we would have done if we hadn't had a ton of trees to tie it up with.

The dogs appreciated having the space to themselves too

Robert was so amazing to do basically everything to keep me from doing too much.

He and Kaylee set up the camp together

After we set up camp we drove down the very super bumpy road to the lake to do some fishing. Then we decided to drive up to another lake to see if there were less people there. That road was unlike anything I have ever driven. My poor stomach had a hard time, swinging back and forth and up and down with every pot hole and bump. The second lake was super low on water, and Kaylee had fallen asleep by the time we got there so we made a circle and drove back down the horrible road to the first lake. 

I forgot to grab the camera (or either phone) so I didn't get any pictures of fishing. We had a lot of fun, but I wish we could have left the dogs in the car (it was too hot). There were too many people to let them loose for more than a few minutes so they just got tied to trees where they had basically no where to lay down. Not fun for them, and I felt bad. Unfortunately we didn't catch anything that evening so we decided to come back in the morning to try again.

Dinner was served as soon as we got back to camp. Kaylee loved eating hot dogs that her daddy had cooked on the fire! She didn't last long enough to have marshmellows though.

When she was finished with her food she went and got her pajamas out of the tent and brought them to us saying "I tired, need go to bed". She and Robert slept in the tent together, and I slept on a mattress (real, not blow-up) in the suburban. That was the only way I could have gone camping without having the babies on top of a mountain.

My bed in the car:

Things got interesting during the middle of the night when contractions woke me up and wouldn't let me go back to sleep. I was in a LOT of pain, and nothing I did was helping. I debated whether or not to wake up Robert and pack everything up and head to the hospital. I finally decided to take some Tylenol and see if it helped the pain any. Luckily, it helped enough to let me relax which let the contractions die down so I was able to sleep.

The next morning, we ate yummy campfire breakfasts, packed up the camp, changed the VERY flat tire on the suburban, and headed down to the lake for some more fishing.

I once again forgot my camera, but this time we were much more successful! We found a container of worms as we walked around the lake, and it seems like the fish liked those better than regular bate. We were only there for 30-45 minutes and caught two fish. I caught one! All the other times I have caught fish it has been in a "shooting fish in a barrel" type situation, where you could probably reach into the water with your bare hands and catch a fish. This time I actually felt like I had accomplished something. Robert caught the other fish, but Kaylee got to reel it in and it made her day! She loved seeing the fish, but kept trying to feed them food while they were on the chain in the water.

Kaylee with her fish

She was a little nervous to have them so close to her face

By the time we headed home, Kaylee was very filthy, and very very happy! I can't wait to go camping again sometime.

Better late than never!

I finally got some picture of our Mirror Lake camping trip, so I thought I would post them. Enjoy!

Kathryn and Kaylee

I think it was raining in this one.....

Hmmmm, I am thinking maybe Kathryn was stuck with Kaylee a lot?

I was a bad mom and forgot her Jacket (mine too) so we had her wear Robert's sweater.

I have to admit, it made a nice handle.

Kathryn

Kaylee on a warmer afternoon

Waiting out the rain

Kathryn showing us all how she started fires for the whole summer. She worked at Anisazi and was out "surviving" on the trail most of the time.

Camping.....with no pictures

Robert, Kaylee, and I went on our first camping trip as a family this past weekend......and I forgot to take a single picture. Yep, I get the bad mom award for that one!

Camping was an interesting ordeal. It was fun, hard, exhausting, and crappy all at the same time. My mom, dad, and sister Kathryn came with us, and we each brought a canoe. We left the boys at home being watched and fed by my friend Sandy. Kaylee was set with everything any baby would ever want. We even bought her her own full sized tent!

We got there Sunday evening, and had a wonderful dinner and Kaylee stayed up until it got dark around 9:30. I was expecting a LONG night of her waking and having issues, but she slept until 7 the next morning! Her trouble started after she woke up though. She started throwing up for no apparent reason and nothing really came up. Just a bunch of gross saliva and gagging noises. I think she was just really hungry or she got too cold.....another bad mom award! She was happy after she got some warm food in her, and then was content to play on the ground while the grown ups got ready for a day of fishing.

We went out on the lake before we even ate breakfast! It was very relaxing to just sit and fish for a while. Especially since the fish were not interested in becoming anyone's dinner that day. It seemed like no one on the whole lake was having any luck. My mom caught a little one that had to be released, but that was it. Bummer. We all (except Kaylee) went out on the canoes for fishing and quiet time. Kaylee mostly walked around, assisted by someone's finger of course, played on the ground, or took shoulder rides on Dad and grandpa's shoulders.

I took her around the lake once in what has become my new favorite baby accessory!!

It is the new child carrier I have been saving for, and I love it already. It is so comfortable to carry her in, and she is slowly getting used to longer and longer walks and hikes in it.

She ended up taking a very good nap in the middle of the day, which was also a big surprise to me. I was impressed and relieved that she was handling it all so well. Then things with her started to fall apart. She drank a bunch before her nap that day and then refused to eat more than 5 oz TOTAL for the next 24 hours.......and was not a happy camper (no pun intended).

A nice "catch and release" family ended up giving us the 4 fish that couldn't be re-released for whatever reason, so we got to have yummy fish for lunch that day. I am not a huge fan of eating trout, but it is part of camping and fishing. Kaylee had a couple bites of fish, and I think it may have given her a tummy ache because it was after that that she wouldn't eat anything. Later that afternoon and evening Robert was able to catch two fish of his own! I guess he was the lucky one of the trip this year. Last year it was Kathryn. Maybe next time I will get some fishing luck!

The evening and night was no fun at all. Kaylee was acting completely exhausted (and starving) so we decided to put her to bed early. She fell asleep really easily and I was hopeful she would stay that way. She was up after an hour, and then kept waking every 10-15 minutes. She was miserable, hungry, and didn't want her bottle.

It was obvious that if I was going to get any amount of sleep I needed to be by her, which wasn't an option because she was in her pack n play. So we rushed to empty out the back of my parents' suburban and set up a bed for me and her. It was surprisingly comfortable and comforting to sleep with Kaylee within arms reach. She woke up countless times during the night, but only required a few pats on the back to go back to sleep. I can't imagine how awful the night could have been if I had had to get out of my bed and tent and into her tent for every wake up. Plus it poured rain and thundered all night so I was glad to be in the car.

Am I pathetic that the car is my favorite place to sleep when camping?

The next morning Kaylee still didn't want to eat, and was not a happy girl. She was all out of sorts from being away from home and being in a rough sleeping situation. Kathryn and I went out on the lake in the canoe one more time, and had some time to talk which was greatly needed. I miss being close to my sisters, and need to make more of an effort to stay in touch with them.

Once we got home Kaylee ate a whole 11 oz bottle of food and went to sleep for a good long time. I guess the little girl was just homesick. That doesn't bode well for my 6 day trip to Arizona.......

Oh, I got the picture situation worked out and will continue to be able to post them. Yay!