Our 1st Camping Trip!

We did it! We went camping and it was awesome! I am so proud of Ryan and myself for not backing down. We were a little deterred by the fact we didn't have a reservation anywhere and really we weren't too sure what camping with a 5 month old was going to be like, but we did it and it was way fun! Julia and Lauren were champs and had a great time too! We camped at Pike National Forest, which is just a beautiful place! We found it quite frankly by the grace of God. We originally had planned to stay at the Garden Of The Gods Campsite, which turned out to be a cement garden of the perpetual trailer camper. They had a piece of dirt down the street from a soccer field and across the road from what appeared to be "cabins" no bigger than a couple outhouses. Yeah we turned right around and headed for the mountains. SO glad we did!
Ryan and I put up our tent while Julia investigated the natural world around her. Little Miss Lauren watched on in her bouncy chair. It was a beautiful clear night. I made Hawaiian Haystack for dinner and we gobbled them up since we weren't eating until 10pm. Time really flew while we were there, getting everything set up.

The fire was GREAT! Julia was a bit scared of it. She kept asking if it was going to burn her. As soon as I would assure her she was safe she'd feel the heat from the fire and scream "it's burning me!" What a goof! The fire's saving grace was roasting marshmallows and making Smores! YUMMY! Julia totally dug that!
Ryan was in charge of teaching Julia to roast the marshmallow, until he stuck them in the fire, pulled them out, blew out flame and said, "that good?" He's such a man sometimes! I showed him how to turn them around and get them nice and golden, the less carcinogens the better! We laughed at how different guys and girls are about camping. He sure was loving having an airmattress and good dinner, so I think he's appreciating the female way of camping.
As we climbed into our sleeping bags we became suddenly aware that it was FREEZING! It only got colder too. When Lauren slept, she did so in the crook of my arm. I was determined she stay warm. She had a hard night though, I think she's really started teething hard core. Julia slept pretty good too on her own little air mattress, except when she'd suddenly wake with an indescribable throat hacking sound and say she needed a drink. Ryan and I may have slept 3 hours that night. At one point I looked at my watch and it read 3:45am, I looked again hoping about 30 minutes passed and it read 3:50am! Ahhh I thought that night would never end. It did though and morning was so refreshing. Ryan cooked us some yummy eggs, I made doughnuts, and we started packing up. It was a quick night, but since we had no reservation they needed the sight ready for the reserved people. That was fine though, because we had done it. We had a fun adventure and great experience for our first time. We put up our sweet tent, made a great fire, roasted marshmallows, looked at the beautiful stars, and just loved being together as a family. What else can you ask for? We're excited to go again and will have an even better idea of what to expect. What we really would like to do is go camping with friends!!! Any takers??