I was Brown and now I'm Wight: Camping, Take 2: Goldstream

Father's Day weekend was spent with friends camping at Goldstream. Thankfully, the rain held off until we were packing up Sunday morning. We missed out on this annual camp trip last year as I was giving birth. We were excited for K and B to try their hand at camping again, this time with other little kids.

Setting up was much smoother. I took the kids to the park (this year's addition to the campground) while Cole set up our tent with a friend. K was much more relaxed right off the bat. We were feeling like pros before anything had really even started, EXCEPT for the fact that I forgot our pillows, garbage bags and toothbrushes-woops!. So we headed to Wal-mart before dinner and picked up those things, so now we have a camping set. No need to forget them ever again- they will just be with out camping stuff in the garage.

After dinner, everyone congregated at our fire pit (that was super convenient). The girls went to sleep without incident and I remembered the sweater on top of B's PJs so her head was nice and warm. By the end of the night it was just the Wights left: Dave and Ali, Cole and I. We then headed to bed and prayed and hoped with all our might that this night would be better than our first night in Tofino.

Hallelujah! Nobody really stirred until 7:15am and then K only needed to be told once or twice to stay in the tent and play with B until mommy and daddy were ready. We didn't get out of the tent till 9ish and everyone was in good moods. We had our Father's Day breakfast on Saturday because we had endless time and on Sunday we would be packing up camp and didn't want to negotiate the take down, caring for the girls and making a special breakfast all at the same time. We had pancakes (the batter was previously prepared at home and stored in an empty, clean ketchup bottle for easy transport and convenient pouring-huge success!), blueberries, homemade syrup (also previously prepared at home), sausages, scrambled eggs and juice. I will definitely use the ketchup bottle trick again. Thank you Pinterest!

While the rain held off, it was still cold under the trees all day so the girls remained in their fleecy PJs all day and Cole and I never really changed either. Classy campers. The girls really enjoyed the park- K was very impressive and mastered the climbing wall meant for 6-12 year olds. B climbed the stairs and went down the slide all by herself. Our friend's daughter was celebrating her 4th birthday and had a little party later that afternoon in their campground. K enjoyed the festivities, while I napped with B. We had a potluck dinner with all the families we were camping with (most of which we attended YSA with back when we were all single), and that night the campfire party was at the Rebalkin's site across from ours.

The girls slept a little less well this night: K kept rolling off her mat, which was a problem because this was BC Parks, which meant we were camping on gravel. So I had to keep helping her back on her mat. I will be following the example of the McCulloughs and buying some floor mats for our tent when we camp in gravel sites from now on. B was up a couple times, cold again I think. I had a different sweater on her that night because the other one was dirty. The hood kept falling off her head. So I will make sure, in the future, to save the perfect sweater for sleeping only.

Take down, the next morning, was a breeze (as much as taking down a site can be). We were on time. Everyone's spirits were high and we were thrilled camping was such a success. It is indeed our favourite thing to do as a family and now we feel we have a really good handle on it for the rest of the summer.

Videos:
K climbing wall: http://youtu.be/H_LOd4aY22Y
B being silly with daddy: http://youtu.be/wC__g1otDeY

embraced the camping life

has a rock fascination

2 year old climbing the wall

so proud of herself

plays like the big kids now

pretty baby

being cheeky- she's not allowed to go down head first

we see this face everyday

much safer

loves to play with daddy

loves his baby

sweet gazes

butterfly ("gofly") face

how can you not love this face?

classy camping- long johns under shorts and t-shirt: it's how we roll

pinata fun

treat face

sour face (warhead)

playing with the remains

loves the soccer ball (K calls it "superball")

cousin fun with bubbles

grown men playing with a pink jump rope (camping only has so many activities)
-that's Cole in the foreground learning how to make a noose...like I said,
only so many activities