Babies Make Four: Our First Camping Trip!

We made it! We made it! We survived our first camping experience.

This all started LAST summer when on Prime Day they had an excellent deal on an 8 person tent. We thought it would be fun to try out camping with the kids and took a leap and bought it. Around the same time, we were having our kitchen painted and the guy who was taking care of that for us told us about seeing the synchronous fireflies at Elkmont in TN. You can either enter a lottery to go and see the fireflies or you can get a campsite and camp out and walk up to see them. You have to rent the campsite when they open in December because they're gone within a few days, so around mid-December last year, I logged on and snagged one of the last few campsites available. They announced the dates that the fireflies would make their appearance and I had luckily picked a day that they would be there!

So, we built up everything, bought ridiculous amounts of stuff on Amazon and at WalMart and packed up our new car and hit the road. My dad also decided that he'd like to go with us and try out camping again so we had a full vehicle!

We arrived around lunchtime on Saturday and checked in then went into Gatlinburg to find something to eat (because even though I had spent a ton on groceries, I hadn't packed anything for lunch.) We found a place with a patio so we could take Ruby and enjoyed a pizza while listening to a blue grass band play up the way. Luke was overwhelmed with all that was happening on the streets, but he LOVED it! Then we were going to go to Walmart, but with traffic, it was an hourand busting up his arm. Oy. He hurried and grabbed the light to try and find her and she had just gotten away. His last resort was to check at our car and sure enough, there she was, waiting for us. Poor girl. And poor peepaw. Once we were all reunited, we laid down to try and sleep. Only, the trollies ran until midnight and some campers at a nearby site stayed up super late cracking beers and having very loud, deep conversations. HA! Plus, Charlie did not sleep well at all. She was up and in between mine and Dillon's sleeping bags all night. She hated the dark and finally laid down and went to sleep with me. Luke, however, laid down when we got back and slept the whole night. No problems. HA! He woke up this morning and said "Hey, everyone! We slept in the tent!" Dillon promptly told him that he was the ONLY one who had slept last night... :)

We were going to get up and make breakfast, but we had to store everything in our car and it wasn't right down from our tent. Instead we loaded up and got Dunkin Donuts and came home, HA! My mom had lunch ready for us and we all came home and went to sleep. Charlie and I slept for 2.5 hours.

Soooo... would we go camping again? I think so! We're already making a list on how to make this more streamlined and easier. It will get easier, right? I think the worst part was that we were unaware about some of the things at the campground and that Charlie just didn't do well in the tent. I don't know if that will get better with age or just with getting used to being in the tent. I definitely over packed so that needs to get better. But this morning, Luke told me that this was one of his favorite trips ever. That solidifies it for us. HA!

This week is Luke's last week of school and next week starts his summer break! We're super excited and he'll be going to GA in a few weeks with my mom and dad and then we'll meet up at the beach! Whew.

Anyways... I stink so I'm off to shower! HA!