It’s the second camping trip for A and yet again she was a fantastic little trooper. I went with 2 girlfriends plus one other child for a socially distanced girls weekend. One for both nights and the other with her little boy for only the 2nd night. This meant I needed to set up the tent and camp by myself with A.
Originally I planned for her and me to be inside my backpacking tent but unfortunately we couldn’t safely share this, once she is a bit bigger then I might feel comfortable using that. Instead it meant I needed to set up our family 6 person tent…alone…with a baby.
I found this shelter on REI – a local outdoors store which we used to frequent to often, until they moved and it isn’t as convenient Togo there now. Anyway I digress; I picked up a Big Agnes Whetstone Shelter which I’ve been using in the yard as a practice due to having zero shade out there and needing to have a change of scenery. I really like this as it’s changeable so I can switch it up and keep her and me covered from the sun. For this trip it meant I could safely place her with some toys whilst I put the tent up.
It took me over 1 hour to get the tent up, being in unfamiliar grounds I think made A a little uncomfortable and all she wanted was cuddles and being held. Nonetheless, success! This tent is much to big just for the two of us, but it wasn’t viable to buy a smaller one for only one camp trip.
We had such a lazy weekend, I also forgot to charge my portable charging block so I have very few photos as I use my phone. Maybe this is the perfect reason to invest in a GoPro … we talked, laughed, rested and slept. A moved around, played with the grass – tried to eat the grass – giggled, rolled down a tini tiny slope which surprised her and gave us some big belly laughs.
On the Saturday I stayed at the campsite with A due to it being too hot and I didn’t have anything to cool us down if we went out for a long walk, however my friends both went out. One for a 4 mile run as she is training for a half marathon and the other with her little boy to find water. Whilst me and A stayed behind and hid from the sun, Avery the husband of Stacie and the hosts of the farm, popped up to let me know a neighbor had called to let him know there was a bear in his yard! We have a yeti box which is near proof, but I still moved everything down to the car. He also gave us some blueberries they had picked that morning, they were delicious. I also had a surprise for A as Hubster popped over with my cooling towels and cold fizzy drinks for us. She loves her Dad so much, it makes me really happy to see her face light up and her little arms and legs wiggle when she sees him, even more so after not seeing him the night before. (We are so lucky that he has been working from home due to COVID-19 that she sees him all the time, he’s not missed out on anything.)
After having such a successful night with A on the Friday I had high hopes for Saturday night especially after a couple of really great naps, including one in her wrap in the morning. I love her wrapped naps, she is just so cosy. She really struggled to get to sleep and had a few wake ups through the night, including us going for a walk at 4am so as not to wake any one else up. 6am came and she fell back to sleep, and so did I. I attract mosquitoes though, so including the bites from the day and night before I added about 8 more bites from the mornings walk.
I knew I was exhausted and just couldn’t face taking down the tent etc by myself and with social distancing we couldn’t help each other. I arranged for Hubster to come over Sunday morning to help. It was amazing. If I’m going to camp without him then I really do need a smaller tent, a two or three person would work great for just the two of us.
The easiest part of camping though was deciding what A was going to wear. After our last trip and a big blow out, i ordered her another set of Iksplor merino wool top and bottoms, plus a hat. They dry quick so I knew i could wash one set whilst she wore the other. She lived in them all weekend, plus I didn’t need to worry about sunscreen other than her neck and face. I also was gifted some spf 50 (maybe 30) pants from a neighbor who made them especially for A and they fit over cloth diapers, we tried them out too. Big hit! I brought too many play objects for her, I could have picked only 3 but I had many more. It’s good to know for our next trip.
I’m planning our next trip already! Maybe further than 15 minutes away and definitely for a couple of nights, we also have to find a cat sitter if we do that which might be challenging in the current climate.
The Gordon's Miscellany 