Backyard Camping

We kicked camping's tail! When Steve got home on Friday night, I had some food and supplies ready and he got started on the tent. I had to document our first time in the "wild" with a ton of pictures!

 Halfway there! I was very thankful that Steve was feeling so manly with himself; I'm not sure I could have figured it out. 

Success! We are obviously not "wilderness campers". I think camping should always be done with an air mattress close by. 

Dinner was hot dogs and quesadillas with s'mores for dessert. I used a skillet to make quesadillas, but Steve roasted the hot dogs and marshmallows on skewers. Note to self: bamboo sticks that are intended for shish kabobs do not make very good camping skewers.

Mel joined us for dinner in between a meeting for her Not For Sale internship and karaoke night with girlfriends. (She has a much more exciting life than we do.) This is her "the fire is really hot!" face.

A three-year old with what my mother calls a "big personality".

She reeeeeeally liked the s'mores!

Evie getting settled in her "bunk". She has just started rolling over, which happened to be bad timing for camping. I brought the mattress out from her crib, but was super-paranoid that she was going to roll off and get stuck between her mattress and the wall of the tent. She finally laid still once she fell asleep.

Initially, Bella was not convinced that we were actually going to sleep outside. We were excited that she settled in so quickly. We brought all of her quilts and blankets down from her room, and let her chill with Steve's iPhone. We'll force her to get in touch with nature next time! P.S. Bella's "special blanket" is the one that her Great-Grandma Ferguson made for her and the quilt is from a wonderful lady at church, Leslie. They are so beautiful, and Bella never sleeps without them!

Steve and Evelyn having some bonding time. We did eventually put away technology and pretend we didn't have access to a 4G network. 

Bella and I spending our daylight hours reading...and reading and reading.

Bella really wanted to take a picture of the horse on the back of her book. Notice that I'm not looking - she said, "You no look at the camera, Mama." I had to look away, but still point at the horse for her documenting purposes.

While taking the previous picture, she noticed my blue nails. "Hands up, Mama!"

Our view from bed. Since there was no forecast for rain, Steve agreed to leave the rain-guard off and we got to sleep all night while looking up at the stars! Very romantic...minus the toddler and baby in there, too.

When she refuses to smile this often, it helps to keep your sense of humor.

The Divine Miss E's set-up. Oh, and a box fan, so Mama stays cool. I need to add that to my "must have while camping" list: an air mattress and a fan.

We finally got both girls asleep! It was about two hours later than normal, but we had a great time! We read books, played on the bed together, watched a movie, and looked at the stars. It was warm when we went to sleep, but we had pants and long sleeves with us just in case, and it definitely got chilly over night! Waking up to nurse Evie, I finally brought her into bed with me because her hands and ears were cold.

We survived! This is us first thing this morning. Bella woke us up at 6:30 and then played in her "room" with the flashlight.

Celebrating our return to civilization with breakfast at Cracker Barrel. Chicken fried steak and scrambled eggs. 

We will definitely try it again this Fall in the real wilderness...or at least a real campsite.