Camping Fail

In December 2015, we decided we wanted to go on a camping trip. We kept having issues with the weather being too warm, and so we picked a weekend in early December. The plan was for us to do a trial run from Friday to Saturday, and then the Fleshmans would meet us for the whole day Saturday and stay through Sunday for Alana’s first camping trip. We decided to go to a camp ground that was very close to our house around 30 minutes away with traffic for the case that things didn’t work out. We had never been camping with Reese so we didn’t want to be too far away. Well, the weekend we ended up picking ended up being the coldest that whole month! The weather went down into the 30s which with tent camping can be pretty chilly.

A view of the horizon, this campground was up on a mountain, and so the camp sites across from us kind of show you the drop off which shows the whole of Huntsville if you get closer to the edge and look off.

We arrived as early as we could,but it gets dark early so Grant and I were on a mission to get everything set up before it got dark.

 Our camp site; we didn’t realize it, but we just missed a lot of tailgating for games at this camp ground the weekends before. We don’t follow sports ball so this was news to us.

Reese being a trooper while we set up as much as we could.

All set up and ready to go. We call it the Tajma Tent.

Then had a fire and let Reese see it at least for a little bit before putting her down to bed and fixing our dinner.

Playing with the lantern was super fun.

 Reese went right to sleep, but we ended up having issues because she is used to moving ALL around her crib. Well, in her thicker suit it kept her from rolling and turning which then would wake her up and make her mad. However, it was way to cold for her to sleep without it. We had a space heater in our tent just for her,but we have a very well vented tent which meant the hot air rose, and cold air was drawn in through the vents in the bottom of the tent. So exactly the opposite of what we were wanting it to do. Around 1 am after many many wake ups, and trying to quiet her down for other camper’s sake, we decided to try having her sleep with us since we were toasty warm in our blankets. Reese has NEVER coslept with us. Whenever she is with us in our bed it is morning and playtime before we get up. So she slept for 20 minutes with us, woke up, looked at us like we were crazy, and then was manically playing and going CRAZY. So, around 2 am we decided to call it a night and head home. We packed up Reese, the bare necessities, and went home. The next morning we came back to pack up the rest of the camp site, and cancelled with the Fleshmans. 🙁 If it hadn’t been as cold, I have no doubt Reese would have done great considering she has slept through the night anywhere else we have been since she was 8 weeks old. So we are hoping this year for a more successful trip. Maybe we will do a backyard trial run next.

Here is one view from this campground during the summer months that we took.