My life, my blog: Catskills Camping, day 2 (photo crazy)

So our first overnight camping experience wasn't what I had planned for. I had expected Jason to put up a fight sleeping and assumed he might end up having to sleep in my arms. Well, I hadn't even imagined a scenario as badly as what played out. Yikes. I'm guessing he didn't fall asleep until about midnight, which wasn't too horrible. He settled in next to Tyler, with me on the other side of him. I had finally fallen asleep when Tyler managed to roll onto part of Jason, waking him up in the process. From there on out it was terrible. He tossed and turned and whined for a long time, before eventually just starting to scream (of course likely waking the whole campground). I finally decided to bring him outside and go sit in the car, but for some reason I couldn't get in the car and realized I couldn't very well leave Ty sleeping in the tent by himself, possibly surrounded by bears. So I tried again to get him to sleep with no success, all the while he was screaming. So then I had to wake up Tyler (which didn't go well) and bring them both to the car. Tyler then started crying that he felt sick and wanted to go home, and honestly had I not had the girls car seats in my car I would have just packed up the kids and left. So after still listening to Jason scream and Tyler whine I eventually managed to locate the Motrin and brought them back to the tent. I was able to walk outside with Jason a bit til he calmed down a little, until the fear of being approached by a bear overcame me and I went back into the tent to a thankfully sleeping Tyler. Eventually Jason succumbed to sleep. Of course the position he ended up in was taking up most of my sleeping space, but I wasn't taking any chances in moving him, so needless to say once I did finally get him to sleep (maybe 3:30??) I had a very restless night. Surprisingly he slept well after then, and was the last one to wake in the morning, which shocked me (maybe close to 9am).

We got a slow relaxed start to our day. We had light breakfasts and the kids played around the campsite, especially Ty and Kenzie on their "party rock" where they'd color and play games. Meanwhile I decided to spend the day with the group and then drive home that evening, saving everyone from a horrible night of sleep again.

Eventually we put the kids in the car and head off for a hike. On the drive I discovered that Jason had cut a tooth, which hopefully accounted for his horrible evening. Anyway, thankfully my neighbor Christina lent me a hiking backpack for Jason, and it proved to be VERY necessary. Tyler was all set with his handmade binoculars (not sure he ever realized that they served no purpose) and big hiking stick. We did a hike up to Artists' Rock. Jason loved the backpack, grabbing branches along the way and taking in the view. The kids loved it, scaling large rocks and getting too close to the cliff edge for my liking. The hike was actually more than I expected, not as far as distance, but as far as difficulty. I even needed help a couple of times getting up the mountainside. But very worth it with awesome views. Unfortunately it was pretty foggy/hazy at the top. Apparently you can sometimes see as far as New York City (or at least city lights at night). Pretty cool.

After our hike we made our way over the playground area for a little cool down time for the parents and play time for the kids.

Then it was off to our next hiking destination. Erich and I donned our hiking backpacks and we all took off for a slightly easier hike up part of the trail to the waterfall. Still a bit tricky footing, and being so close to a cliff edge had me sort of on edge with Tyler hiking on his own. But the scenery was beautiful. When we got to the landing there wasn't quite as much water as there apparently usually it, but it was still quite pretty. The kids had fun splashing in the water, but it proved to be too slippery and soon Tyler and Erich found themselves in the water. Luckily Beth was there to give a hand to Tyler and Mackenzie at all times with all the tricky rock areas and slippery footing.

While the other kids rested (or was that the first of a few rest/time-out sessions???) Beth and I took the younger ones for a walk. Both quickly passed out and we came back to chill out around the campsite.

While Jason continued to nap we broke out the raw peanuts that we were hoping to feed the chipmunks with (Erich and Beth had reported that they would come close, once even eating nuts off of someone's foot). Well Erich lured them in and pretty soon had the chipmunk eating directly out of his hand. Of course the kids wanted to do this, so Mackenzie and Tyler waited patiently with palms open. Eventually the chipmunk approached Mackenie, eating out of her hand. Next was Tyler's turn. He got a surprise when the chipmunk nibbled at his finger. No injury, and next time around the chipmunk ate right out of his hand too. This kept the kids (and chipmunk) busy for quite a while. Eventually Jason woke up and of course wanted to participate. He tried and tried to wait patiently, but as soon as the chipmunk approached he would jump and shriek in excitement, of course scaring the chipmunk away.

We had a little relaxing time eating dinner (pork roll, cheese, and egg sandwiches with hot dogs for the kids after trying to other) and hanging around the campsite.

Then it was off to the showers, which I'll spare you the details of how I managed to shower with 2 boys, but I assure you it was a feat. I then took the time to dose Jason with some ibuprofen and orajel.

Ended the evening of course with the traditional (and totally necessary) marshmallow roasting and smores eating! Yummo!