No Daddys allowed Camping Trip

So let's just cut to the chase. My friend invites me to come camping with 3 other moms and I evaluate how much fun it would be versus how much camping hates me. And yes I say camping hates me and not the other way around because I have tried to like camping but it ALWAYS rains when I attempt to like sleep in a bag on the dirt in the middle of woods.

Anyways, I decide I didn't want to miss out. So here we go: 4 moms and 9 kids (ages 3 months to 6 years old). No Dads. Bring it on.

I have to say I felt quite empowered just getting to the campsite. I packed up the tent, 2 SUPs, the kids bikes, suitcases and all the food by myself. It took a bit of figuring out but I set up the tent relatively easy. Poor Jennifer and her 'instant tent' from Costco took more time to set up than all three of ours combined. But she is amazing and figured it out with a baby strapped on the whole time. 

I must admit there are actually a few things I do quite enjoy about camping.  For one, everyone seems to be fine with letting their kids scamper off into the woods on their own, climbing over the trees and discovering bugs and slugs. No one really knows where their kids are but everyone seems to be OK with the fact that they are somewhere in the forest, somewhat close to our campsite. Maybe different rules apply at campsites or something. At home, my husband worries if the kids are in the front yard unattended but apparently when you're camping, they can be  ninjas wielding sticks as weapons and fighting imaginary dragons. The Park Ranger gave them a scavenger hunt mission and the kids were so thrilled to complete it and earn their shiny pin.

On that note, I love how all the little kid biker gangs....some still trailing behind with training wheels, it was super fun to do circles around the campsite. Just wait until next year, I bet everyone will be riding with no training wheels.

I also love that the campsite was minutes away from the lake so we had time everyday to bury the kids in the sand and also test out how many kids can fit on a SUP before it sinks. Which if you're wondering is 1 adult and 3 kids.

One thing I don't like about camping though is cooking and doing dishes. When I am on vacation, I want everything to be easier not harder. I don't really want to hike to a tap to collect water and then wait for the water to boil slowly on the BBQ but actually it wasn't that bad at all. I love the way moms just naturally divide and conquer,  two moms would watch the kids play while the other two cooked in peace. The kids were also really good when it came to mealtimes. Maybe because the kids were ravenous from fighting all those dragons in the forest but most kids devoured their supper without protest (or maybe because camp food is primarily a mac and cheese, spaghetti and hot dogs). Anyways, the moms got to enjoy a mostly whine-free dinner by ourselves.

Thanks to Jennifer bringing her propane fire pit, we were able to have a campfire during the fire ban. So thankful that she had it because it really isn't camping unless you give the kids their s'mores so they will go to bed. Its kind of like a race where all the moms duck into their tents in efforts to get your children to go to sleep while its still so bright outside. We read stories, rubbed backs, hushed, played the Moana soundtrack (I think that was just me) and one by one we emerge out of tent victorious when they go to sleep or at least stop being loudly awake. It was really nice to sit around the fire after with our much earned mommy drinks after =)

The part about camping that I dislike the most (other than packing for camping) is the actual sleeping part. When you're in a hotel or at home, you only have to listen to your own whiny kid but when you're in the "great outdoors" this is not such a predictable factor.  There was some baby that was having a rough night and wanted to make sure the entire campsite knew how miserable he/she was and there was also some creature that sounded like a cross between an owl and a rooster on steroids that kept me awake for some portion of the night...but other than that it wasn't that bad and the kids were so excited to wake up together in the tent that it (almost) made up for the miserable baby and the owl-rooster cries. Oh it also helped that my mattress didn't have an unfortunate hole in it...

 So long story short(er), I guess camping doesn't hate me.  It didn't rain. The kids loved it. Cooking didn't suck. The campfire rocked. So guess if I'll be embracing this camping thing more, I should invest in a new air mattress. I don't know if we can convince Daddy to join us next year but if these super moms are going next year I'm up for this again!