Memorial Day Weekend Camping Trip

Josh and I couldn't wait for this Memorial Day weekend. We had booked a campsite at Battle Ground Lake State Park for Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. We were excited to take the boys camping and even more excited that this first trial run was so close to home, less than five miles, just incase it was a bust and we needed to come home. We anxiously watched the weather every day last week. It didn't look good. Lots of rain and even some thunderstorms which are pretty rare in the Pacific Northwest. Friday morning came and it was definately overcast. Josh was pretty disappointed. We decided that we weren't going that night but we would check the weather for Saturday and make a call about the rest of the weekend from there. Since we weren't going to the campground, Josh left for work. Although it wasn't sunny, it didn't rain for the rest of the day. So, once Josh got home from work we decided that we would go over to the campsite and set up the pop-up trailer and get an awning over the picnic table to keep some of the site dry if it did start to rain. Josh decided to stay the night with Ethan in the pop-up and I took Jacob home. Saturday morning, Josh and Ethan came and got us and we loaded up the rest of our camping stuff. Since we were so close to home, we took a ton of stuff, too much! The rest of Saturday's weather was pretty good. The sun even came out some. The boys had an absolute blast. Jacob wanted to go everywhere he wasn't supposed to...the road, other people's campsites, the woods by himself. Nana and Papa Long came to our site just after lunch to spend the day. We sat around the campfire, taught Ethan how to hit a baseball & chased Jacob all over just to name a few. In between Ethan's trips into the spooky forest behind our site, we ate chicken chili and grilled cheese sandwiches. Once the boys finally settled in, us grown ups had some beers and played pinochle. Girls beat the boys, by the way! We convinced Nana and Papa to spend the night with us. We gave them the pop-up with Ethan and Josh and I slept in the tent with Jacob. I don't think anyone got a really good night's sleep. We all woke up the next morning to some drizzle. We managed to start a fire and make some coffee and breakfast before it started raining. Jacob didn't like that we were trying to keep him contained. He wanted to be out playing in the cold rain. He was a mess and his little fingers were like isicles. We put all of the chairs and toys under cover and headed home for a while to ride out the rain. We gave the boys a bath to warm them up. Once everyone was warm and all cleaned up and it didn't look like it was going to quit raining we made the decision to pack up camp and put this Memorial Day camping trip in the books. We took the boys over to Nana and Papa's and went to tear down camp. Overall, I would say it was a success though. We were able to try it out with the boys. Josh and Ethan had two nights out in the woods and Jacob got dirtier than I ever let Ethan get at that age. We can't wait to camp with them again. Next time we really need to down size our gear though.