Camping!

Last night we had our first family camping trip. Yes, I, Jenn Barraclough Morrill, voluntarily went camping. Parker has taken the twins camping a couple times but Tyce and I have always stayed home. This time I thought it would be fun to all go. Heat, bugs, and dirt...my three least favorite things! But being with my husband and my boys who were so excited made it all worth it. We got up there later than planned so it got dark fast.



Jack and Josh each found these cute caterpillars and carried them around as pets for a while. Unfortunately, daddy ended up stepping on Josh's and got caterpillar blood and guts all over. Josh handled it surprisingly well! Good thing I took a pic before the massacre... Parker got frustrated setting up the tent by himself. I told him he can blame my dad for never teaching me how to do it!

Once we finally got everything set up we had some hot dogs and smores!They were all super excited to sleep in the tent...It was SO hot and humid! It was 80 degrees with 90% humidity. I was miserable. The boys were pretty hot and sticky too so we ended up sleeping near naked. Jack and Tyce fell asleep so quick. I was surprised at Tyce. I thought for sure he'd cry, whine, wiggle, etc. He's never slept anywhere but a crib so I didn't know how he would do in a tent and on the floor. He was such an angel!Night owl Josh stayed up to finish watching his movie (yes we brought our portable DVD player camping)...Parker and I finally fell asleep around midnight. At 2am Jackson woke up sobbing saying his head hurt. For an hour we tried to calm him, rub his head, distract him with a movie, etc but nothing was working. We debated splitting up and one of us taking him home, giving him medicine, then coming back in the morning to get the rest of them. But they were evacuating the campground in the morning because of the hurricane so we thought we'd better all go. So at 3am we loaded the kids up in the car, packed everything up in the dark, and headed home. All the side exits were closed so we had to go the long way and didn't get home until 4:30. We gave the boys a quick shower (no way could I let them get in their beds being so dirty and sweaty and sticky!) then laid them down. Parker and I unpacked the car and showered and got to bed about 5:15am. The kids slept till 9am and woke up happy! We had promised them IHOP for breakfast after camping so we headed over there...

It was definitely an adventure! I really would've had fun if it wasn't so dang hot and humid. Virginia summers are miserable, that's all there is to it. We so miss the west where it actually COOLS DOWN at night! But we made the most of it and the boys had fun and that's what matters.

The boys are now outside in their swim suits running around in the rain. We're supposed to get some strong winds and rain from the hurricane today/tonight but I'm hoping Parker and I can still go out tonight for my birthday!