Spring Break: Camping

On Tuesday, we went camping for the first time.  Campbell has been asking to go camping in a tent for over a year, so we finally went.  My Eagle Scout husband was excited to show us the ropes of camping.  Our diva daughter and I were a bit apprehensive!  We went to Brazos Bend State Park, which is about an hour and fifteen minutes from home.

As soon as we arrived, we unloaded the car and started gathering firewood.  

After we gathered enough wood to make a campfire, we set out on a hike.  First, we visited the Nature Center and saw some snakes and baby alligators.

Daddy touched a snake!

Baby Alligator

Then, we walked around the first of two lakes.  This one was half a mile.  It was so pretty and peaceful!

 See the alligator?

Two more alligators!

 I can't believe we were that close to them!

Lake # 2 - this one was 1.7 miles...the kids did great!

Bailey and Daddy

 More alligators!

When we got back to our campsite, Judd insisted that we needed more firewood so I took the kids to the playground while he hunted for more wood.  Then he started the fire!

Our campsite - we had a screen shelter that we kept our food in.

Our humble tent...it's a 3 person tent, and there are 4 of us.  Yeah, that was fun!

Bailey loved sitting by the campfire!

Cooking hot dogs for dinner...yum!

After it got dark, we roasted marshmallows and made s'mores!  The kids loved it and ate more marshmallows than I could count!  We spent the rest of the evening by the campfire.  It was getting pretty chilly, but we stayed warm by the fire.  We finally decided it was time to go to bed so we all piled into our tiny tent and tried to sleep.  Despite putting the kids in warm pajamas and me wearing three shirts and sweatpants, it was freezing!  I don't know how much Judd and I slept.  We were both cold, and he was so stopped up that he couldn't breathe.  The kids woke up at 6:30 saying they wanted to go home because they were freezing.  Campbell was also stopped up and couldn't stop coughing.  We ended up putting the kids in the car, turning on the heat, and packing everything up in the dark. We were out of there by 7:00 and home by 8:15!

We really did have a great time, but I think if we go tent camping again, we'll go when it's warmer!