This Family's Life: Camping Fun!

We took our first camping trip with Amos this weekend and it all went pretty well. Despite the fact that I forgot to bring contact solution, Amos' breathing treatment gear and matresses to sleep on, we had a pretty good trip. The first two things, we got along fine without. The third, well, let's just say it was a long night and a hard ground! Thankfully, we had towels to sleep on. Still, it was a hard ground. And, a long night.
Anyway, the weather was perfect, warm and sunny and no rain. Amos loved exploring, digging with his shovel and bucket, and playing with the other kids. There were a few other families on the trip, too, and the children numbered 11! Amos had a blast playing with them all and exploring the campgrounds. We had a great dinner, with all of us pitching in different things to eat and then had a time of singing and talking as we thought about resting. It was soon time for smores and many of the kids were still awake! I think a small fraction of the kids actually went to sleep and stayed asleep, with most of them staying up late with us as we continued to hang out by the fire. Amos was no exception and finally, when we were all tucked into our little REI tent, Amos said to Nathan, "Dada?" and Nathan said, "Yes, Amos." and Amos replied, "Nie, nite!" It was his first real conversation!
He soon went to sleep, sleeping on lots of layers of little Amos blankets and we spent the night, tossing and turning. As soon as one side would start to ache from ground hardness, we would shift and sleep a bit. Needless to say, we're all a bit worn out, but it was still alot of fun!
After breakfast, singing and more group time, we packed up and headed to the fishing pond. At first, Amos was really excited about jumping in the pond! It was tough to help him throw rocks and not himself in! So after a few minutes, we drove down to the lake, which was really flooded and decided to go back up to the pond, where the real fun was. It was my turn to throw rocks with Amos and we had a ball. Nathan was on camera duty and captured some great moments. We soon headed on our way and drove a few minutes to Bloomington, where our friend Mark's parents live. We had one last meal together and then made the trek home. Amos slept for most of the way and we made it home, happy to be ahead of another looming storm.
It was great to get out into nature!