Camping With Kids

I spent last week preparing for our camping trip (so much harder to pack for than a normal hotel vacation with amenities and restaurants)...our last trip before our frozen embryo transfer next week! Friday morning Ryan and I left to go camping with my youngest sister, Kim, her husband, Flint and their two kids (Bailey, 2 years and Dylan, 2 months). We went two and a half days with absolutely no cell phone service or Internet (so no blogging or Facebook)...tough, but refreshing.

We stayed on Flint's family's property in Joe's Valley (in the Manti La Sal National Forest). The large property owned by his grandfather and his 11 cousins and has been in their family for about a century. Flint's family has a small cabin (bigger than some on the property though) with a living room, kitchen and loft. The loft has 5 queen beds and a bunk bed, so we did not exactly rough it. The cabin is nice, but does not have water or electricity (and we wanted to keep it as clean as possible), so we spent most of our time down a hill behind the cabin at a little camp area we set up by the fire pit.

We had a list of activities and only a day and a half to do them all: four-wheeling (we rented 2 Arctic Cats), swimming at the reservoir and shooting guns (it was Ryan's first time). My other sister and her husband were not able to come so Ryan and I brought their two daughters (Brinlee, 7 and Kenzie, 9) along with us. 

Seabee Kim taught the kids to shoot a .22...Ryan got to shoot an AR-15 (I did not get a pic)

This was the first time we have taken a vacation of any kind with kids that we were in charge of so it was a bit of a learning experience. I learned some things about children and myself on the trip.

1- Make sure to have entertainment in the car. 

Snacks we always have covered because we never take road trips without candy, beef jerky and Pringles, but entertainment I did not plan for. It was only a two hour drive...I went on plenty of 4-hour trips to Idaho as a kid and was entertained listening to the music and watching out the window (and asking "Are we there yet?"). Kids today are not so easily entertained. Luckily I brought my iPad (like I always do)...although next time I will plan ahead and make sure I have some kid movies loaded on it (Bridesmaids and The Hangover are not exactly family friendly flicks). Kenzie watched Rise of the Planet of the Apes (she had that or The Avengers to choose from) while Brinlee played games on her Nintendo DS (good thing their mom thought to pack it!) We also had fun listening to my Disney playlist and guessing which movie the songs were from (Brinlee is a champ!)

2- Meltdowns are inevitable. 

The first one happened less than an hour into the drive when Brinlee realized she forgot her shoes. She panicked thinking that now she would not be able to ride on the four-wheelers at all and started bawling. We told her she still could and she insisted that her mom said she had to have her shoes or she couldn't. We calmed her down within 10 minutes and I feared anything else unexpected that might happen over the weekend. 

Another mini-meltdown occurred when Brinlee woke me up in the night. She said she couldn't sleep and I asked if she needed me to walk her to the bathroom or if she wanted a drink of water and she said no. I told her to just get back in bed and close her eyes and eventually she would fall asleep. I was not going to let her in bed with me because I was already hot and her bottom bunk was only maybe 3 feet from where I was sleeping. She just stood there and whined that she couldn't sleep and that she had been awake ALL night (which wasn't true...she was the first one to fall asleep when we all went to bed). I finally asked her what she wanted me to do about it. She was quiet for a minute then jumped back into bed and started crying. In less than 5 minutes she was asleep. (Maybe I did something right?) I honestly was not sure what to do in this situation.

Even Kenzie threw a little fit, pouting and on the verge of tears because I made her do up her chin strap on her helmet before we would go out on the four-wheelers the first time. She pouted and yelled that it felt like it was choking her and loosened it to the point I could pull it around her chin. I told her it had to be tight enough that you couldn't pull the helmet off with it buckled and she freaked out a little and whined that she didn't want to wear it. Finally I got her to leave it tightened (I could still fit two fingers under it easily) and we left. Before we were out of sight of the cabin, she was fine.

The last meltdown that stands out in my mind happened on Saturday before we left to drive down to the reservoir to swim: All of us girls were in the loft changing. Kim got Bailey changed into her swimming suit and ready to go and then went to put her sandals on and the kid started screaming. She did not want to wear anything on her feet. Within minutes she was in a full tantrum mode: jumping on the bed, screaming and flinging her arms around. My sister walked out of the cabin, leaving her to scream it out and calm herself down. It was over in a matter of minutes, but the battle of wills did not end for about 15 minutes. Once she realized how uncomfortable it was to walk barefoot on dirt and pine needles in our camp area (yes, I gave in and carried her down), she let her cousin Kenzie help her with her sandals. (This one is particularly funny because she threw a fit the night before when Kim tried to take her shoes OFF!)

3- Kids are MESSY. 

Every time Kenzie and Brinlee changed their clothes or dug anything out of their bags, I spent 10 minutes re-organizing and telling them to put things in specific places. I can't count the number of times I had to separate their dirty clothes from their clean ones and pick up random items off the floor. Every night after s'mores we had 3 little girls with dirty faces and sticky hands. Kim and I even found marshmallow in our own hair and I found a sticky spot on the back of my sweatshirt while packing to leave. S'mores are fun, but the stickiest, messiest treat ever! 

The biggest mess of the trip was Dylan's though: less than 10 minutes after Kim and Flint left on a four-wheeler ride (with Bailey and Brinlee riding passengers) Kenzie, who was holding Dylan, told me Dylan had pooped. All morning the baby had been gassy and he had already fooled us once with stinky farts. I told her he had probably just farted again, afterall Kim had just changed him before she left. Then Kenzie moved him aside and said, "No, he pooped on me!" I looked and saw that one whole side of her shorts was covered in yellow, sticky poop. Dylan had poop up his back and coming out the side of his diaper. I had to change his diaper and his onesie and Kenzie had to change her shorts. This all happened 5 minutes after he sneezed and I pulled the biggest booger I have ever seen out of his nose. Babies are cute, but kinda gross sometimes!

Kenzie and Dylan minutes before the blow-out!

4- Kids scare the crap out of me! 

I am paranoid about safety! Just watching the girls run made me nervous with all of the sticks and rocks to trip on, fall on or poke out an eye. (Not to mention the marshmallow skewers and their pointy ends...try getting a toddler to hold still with one of those in her hand).

My biggest fear around kids is always water. I learned how dangerous it can be 13 years ago when some good friends lost their 2-year-old little girl in a drowning accident at Lake Powell. My sister and I had already planned for swimming and she bought a life jacket for Bailey on our pre-camping grocery shopping trip. I helped her put it on the moment we arrived at the beach. Like most toddlers she is fearless around water. Kenzie and Brinlee are both good swimmers and know to stay in the shallow waters, so I wasn't as concerned about them (although we still made sure they had the full supervision of at least one adult at all times).

Kim walked Bailey down into the water to let her feel it on her feet then they walked back up onto the beach where I was helping Flint get the inner tubes inflated. Bailey walked down to the edge of the water with the other two girls and one of them threw a beach ball out into the water. Kim turned to look at me and Bailey ran after the ball. Kim looked back at Bailey to see she had tripped and was facedown, kicking and splashing her arms in less than two feet of water. Kim ran and I froze, imagining my friends' late daughter and seeing the fear she probably experienced in the face of my niece as my sister pulled her to her feet where she coughed and started crying.

For a few minutes after that she sat between Kim and I on the beach, shivering in a towel, until she got over the shock and was back to her normal happy self. It scared her more than anything and she refused to go close to the water without her mommy after that (which is a good thing). Kim and I floated out with the three little girls on two tubes tied together with a rope while Ryan or Flint pulled us back and forth across the beach in the shallow water and all the kids ended up having fun (although Bailey was very concerned any time one of the big girls climbed off their tube into the water).

The only group photo we got!

As if the water wasn't bad enough, we had to bring fire into the mix as well. I have never been so scared around a campfire as I was Friday and Saturday nights watching all of the kids walk around. On Saturday night Bailey climbed off of my lap to walk over to her mom (who was tending to baby Dylan in his stroller one chair away from me) and instead of walking back between the chairs to where her mom was taking care of the baby, she decided to walk in front of everyone and around. She tripped and fell forward toward the firepit; I jumped and caught her before she fell over the hot rocks around the fire. (I felt relieved that I still have fast reflexes after I froze up when she tripped in the water.)

Bailey with her first marshmallow to roast (I couldn't catch her looking forward AND smiling!)

Even with the tantrums and whining and scares and shared bathroom trips and early bedtimes (Brinlee was scared to go in the outhouse by herself and she and Kenzie were both afraid to go to bed before I did) I still had a great time on the trip. Kids make camping a little more work (Kim was a champ with her tiny ones), but so much fun! 

I LOVE all of these cute little faces!

There were five little experiences that made me so excited to have kids of my own:

1. Kenzie literally bursting with excitement on the way there and before we went to do any activity (she would squeal and jump and grab onto me-her excitement is contagious!) She was so much fun.
2. Brinlee walking up to me while we were loading the cars to leave and just putting her arms around me and leaning against me hugging me while I talked to Kim. Brinlee can be so sweet.
3. Snipe Hunting. The kids were so excited to go they would hardly let me finish my dinner. Even after Kim and I brought the third "snipe" back to the campfire so the girls could see it (for those who didn't get this camp experience as kids, it was a rock), Kenzie still wanted to go out and "hunt" for some more (Brinlee was too scared of the dark and had us walk her back to her uncles at the fire after the first two)! It was fun to share this "first" with them. 
4. Helping Bailey pet the horses and seeing how gentle she was (there are 3 horses that live on the family property). She even named the black one Peggy before we left. The other two girls named them Shadow, Maximus and Blackie the day before. It was actually fun watching all 3 girls get so excited about petting the horses (and chasing chipmunks).
5. Bailey falling asleep on my lap in front of the fire our first night there. (Side note: I love that Bailey lets me hold her and always wants me to carry her around-probably because she knows I can't say no. I also LOVE hearing her say "Aunt Char" when she sees me because she always smiles and seems so happy that I am there.)

Petting "Shadow"

Moms get to experience moments like these all the time; as an aunt they are not so common. When those precious moments do occur I appreciate them so much and it makes me look so forward to being a mom myself. (Hopefully I'll be one soon...my screening ultrasound is tomorrow, so our third try at IVF is getting close!) Seeing my nieces and nephews experience the joys of childhood and feeling so proud or loved only makes me wonder how much better it feels for their moms. Seeing Bailey look up at Kim and call her "Mommy" just melts my heart! I can't wait to be someone's Mommy.

Bailey and her Hero
(Bailey's shirt says "My Mommy, My Hero". Kim got that and her cute camo pants for her just before her enlistment in the Navy ended.)