Sunday, September 02, 2007

Camping

We went camping a few weeks ago at Hocking Hills (near Columbus) and had a memorable experience. Claire and Jacob loved being outside; they especially loved trying to get to the campfire, and wandering down the little road near our campsite (which, fortunately, was pretty far from any other campsites). Claire loved sitting on Taylor and Andrew's tent and playing with sticks and rocks. It seems whenever we go to a place with sticks, Claire finds a couple to carry around with her.

I'll admit we weren't exactly roughing it - we brought 2 portable cribs for our tent and a booster seat for meals. But, we did sleep outside... for some of the night. Some time in the middle of the night, a dirt bike went for a spin close to our campsite, waking both of our children up and scaring them badly enough that they would not go back to their cribs. Claire sat with Dani for a long time and Jacob slept on me long enough to leave a pool of drool from my belly button to the top of my shoulder (yuck - if that's not roughing it, I don't know what is!). Dani ended up in the van with 2 little kids strapped in their seats watching Baby Einstein for a couple of hours!


The next day was a lot better and we took a couple short hikes. The first was to 'Cedar Falls' which had no running water. "Boring," said Andrew, so we went to Old Fart's Cave (much more exciting, in just the name!). It was pretty cool - I could have sworn they were running a day care there with all the unattended little kids running around! It may be a little while before we try camping again!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I applaud you for giving camping a try. It probably wouldn't have been too bad had not there been a very inconsiderate night rider. It looks like you have a backpack full! I remember doing that with our kids, but I don't know that we did it once they could walk--except when riding motorcycles.

Ryan and Susie said...

Wow! What an adventure. I applaud you for you brave efforts. I haven't done the camping thing with my kids yet. The sleeping part is what worries me. Bringing the pack n' play is a good idea. I'm glad you guys had a good time...aside from the lack of sleep of course.

Sara Richins said...

We went to Hocking Hills in July for a belated honeymoon, and I thought the sign by Cedar Falls made the sight especially humorous since it describes the trickle we saw as one the largest waterfalls in Ohio. . .