camping - another first!

I took a couple days off of work and took Lucy camping!   I arranged a short trip to a state park and invited a friend and her two children (ages 3 and 2).  It was the first tent camping experience for all of the kids.  Deb and I were nervous and had fairly low expectations (especially for the sleeping portion).   Everything turned out great!  Shortly before we got to the state park we stopped for lunch at a restaurant called "Happy's" ... well it lived up to it's name!  This place was just this little hole-in-the-wall semi-fast food restaurant but it had an outdoor and indoor play area ... big sand box, swing set, kids picnic table, basketball court WOW!  The kids had tons of fun playing and stretching and they even ate a little.  We (Deb and I) got our energy mustered for the next step....  thankfully when we arrived at the campground one kid was sleeping (Nathan 2yr), so we were able to get the tent up with only two mobile children to track.  Once everyone was awake and alert we went on a short hike. Lucy fell asleep once she was in the carrier.  The two boys did well on the hike (aside from one minor melt-down).  We then went swimming and back to the campsite.  Lucy was in heaven ... she never had to go "inside" she had two other kids to follow around and her mom never left her sight.  At bed time, Nathan was practically begging to go down ... and he and Lucy fell quickly to sleep.  Isaac stayed up for a smore, and then a fire stick show (put on by me ... the fire bug).  He also fell asleep quickly which left Deb and I a few minutes to chat by the fire before we too needed sleep.  The night was CHILLY!  No bugs ... The kids all slept through the night ... Lucy kept moving her hands so they were on my arms or face.   The morning came quickly and we were up again.  We had pancakes, hot chocolate, coffee ... we played at the campsite, went to a talk on "predators" and went on another hike ... we then cheated on lunch by going to McDonalds ...  after playing at the campsite for a bit longer we packed up and headed home.   The experience was positive and I felt like I could really handle the camping with kids thing!    Can't wait until the next trip in September.   Photos will follow when I get to a faster computer.