Camping with a Baby

This weekend we enjoyed our fourth annual camping trip to Cunningham Falls State Park.

Taking a baby camping posed a few challenges. The first one was the logistics and packing for camping with three kids. Since our van doesn't sit three across on the middle row, Chris had to put what he could up in a roof top carrier. Wesley rode in the third row and we folded the other 2/3 of the seat down. When Chris was unpacking everything, he put Wesley on top of the van, to hand some stuff down to him.

Josiah had two naps in his crib on Friday and one nap in the van on the way to Cunningham Falls State Park. There are days, that he doesn't have a single long nap in his crib because we are out and about. It didn't occur to me until he wouldn't go to bed Friday night, that I shouldn't have let him so long in his crib for the first two naps.

Josiah had a horrible time going to sleep Friday night. Of course, we didn't want him crying and disturbing all of the other campers. I walked him around the camp loop five times and Chris walked him around three times. Finally, he fell asleep close to 11:00. This is how I found him and Chris when I came back from brushing my teeth in the bathhouse. Another challenge was where he would sit for meal times. He ended up sitting in Wesley's camping chair while we sat at the picnic table. He sat right by me so I could give him food from the table. Friday night, Chris grilled steaks and broccolini. We also had spinach salad with strawberries and blue cheese. Josiah had a little steak and a lot of strawberries. Saturday morning we had pancakes. For lunch we had hamburgers and hotdogs. For dinner we had pulled chicken sandwiches and spinach salad with blueberries. I prepped the chicken with the rub and made the sauce Friday at home so all we had to was grill the chicken and reheat the sauce. Josiah loved the bbq pulled chicken and blueberries.

Another concern was what to do with a crawling baby while at the campsite. Thankfully, he loves standing and cruising at things. At one point, Chris caught him squatting down to pick up gravel and putting it in one of our large storage boxes. We moved him over to the cooler and he worked on filling up the cup holders.

Yes, he did eat some dirt but not as much as I feared he would eat. We also just let him crawl around a lot. He mostly bear crawled on his hands and feet.

On Saturday morning, Lydia "read" with her flashlight.Lydia and Wesley rode their bikes around camp loop A LOT.

We hiked up to the little fall.

Of course, the hike put Josiah to sleep.

He normally doesn't sleep this soundly but he was so tired from the night before.

Wesley said the hike was his favorite part of the camping trip.

Lydia said her favorite part was swimming to Daddy in the lake.

When we went to Myrtle Beach in April, Josiah was content to just sit on a beach towel and watch everyone else. At the lake, he discovered how much fun crawling around in the sand can be.

He liked playing in this little pool the kids made.He also liked sitting in the lake and splashing and then crawling out. When Chris buried Wesley in the sand, Josiah got in on the action too. After all that playing in the sand and water, Josiah took a great nap on the beach.

While Josiah napped, Wesley and Lydia had snowcones.

After dinner we went to the ampitheater to hear a presentation on rattle snakes.

The speaker also had a copperhead with him. I remember when we saw two copperheads while we were hiking a couple of years ago during another camping trip.

The presentation was cut short because of thunderstorms. The kids didn't get to roast marshmallows that night but thankfully everyone, including Josiah, went to bed easily. Chris and I stayed up and talked for an hour after the kids were in bed. I missed sitting by the fire since we were saving the firewood so the kids could roast marshmallows in the morning. After breakfast Wesley and Lydia had s'mores. Josiah just had plain graham crackers. Thankfully he didn't know the difference.

We had a great time. Camping with a crawling baby posed some challenges but it all worked out.
He even enjoyed taking the lid off my empty coffee cup and putting it back on.
Hopefully, we will have another opportunity to go camping this summer.