Birthday Camping

This dude turned five last month!

Being a non-birthday party year for Jason meant that instead of a friend party, we would do something fun together as a family. I knew pretty early on that a camping trip would a fun option. For weeks we talked about where we could go but didn’t make any solid plans. We figured we could always go to one of the church camps in the area if we couldn't find anything in the state parks. Justin decided to take Jason’s birthday (Friday) off. That morning (since no other option found us) we called the nearest church camp to reserve a spot and found out they were booked solid. We had only one other idea and that trying to find a spot at the campground we used to go with friends each Memorial Day weekend, now only 20 minutes from where we live. When Justin called, they told us there were only a few campsites left and they would require us to hike in with all our gear. I was determined to make this camping trip work so we decided to drive out there and see if it was doable. If they turned out being taken by the time we got there or if we didn't like them we figured we'd at least get in a good mile hike. It was an easy hike and they had wheelbarrows that we could borrow to help haul our stuff, but it was in the boondocks. Justin and I were reluctant, but the kids were excited. We decided to take one more shot and ask the camp office if there had been any cancellations. Turns out that after the gal had hung up with us that morning she realized she was looking at the wrong paper and there were actually still several tent sites available. Dought! that set us back several hours! Now we still had to drive back home, get all our stuff ready and then come back out. I’m not a fan of doing stuff like this in a rush. Let's just say it was more than a little stressful for Justin and me and it seemed to take forever. Preparing meals, locating camping gear, fitting it all in the van.... we didn't get out of the house til 4pm, but I was determined. While Justin and I got camp set up the kids rode around on the paved pathways and played around in the tent.

We were planning on cooking Dutch oven peach cobbler for dessert - a camping favorite. The raspberry farm the kids and I picked from just a few days early was only 5 minutes away so we decided to go pick a few handfuls to add into the cobbler. I tell ya, it can be so hard to walk away from bushes of juicy ripe berries - our few handfuls turned into half a box. The Dutch oven dinner and cobbler were delicious and the kids didn’t mind having a few extra berries to snack on.

(though it would appear they did mind having their picture taken)

We were already full, but it is necessary to roast smores as well. 

Unfortunately, I think too many sweets left the birthday boy with a tummy ache, but he felt much better after he threw up.

This was Katie's first camping trip out of a play n' pack and I wasn't sure how well she would do crawling into a sleeping bag in a tent with all her siblings, but I couldn't have been more smooth. She actually wanted to go to bed before we even got out the smores so I tucked her in, sat in the tent for a few minutes, then told her goodnight and walked out. That was it - she woke up a few times when the rest of us cycled into bed, but she never cried or complained and went right back to sleep.

We brought cereal for breakfast followed by more smores. 

Since Jason wasn't feeling well the previous night we presented him with his birthday cake the following morning and sang happy birthday to our sweet boy. Zingers all around. 

We didn't stick around camp long (this may go down as the quickest camping trip ever). It was on to our ward BBQ for the rest of the day.