Camping Recap

Two weekends ago, we went camping at Rasar State Park, about a 2 hour drive north of Seattle.  What a great place!  We went with our multiples club, and I’ve got to say, the group campsites were amazing!  So spacious — we had TONS of space to ourselves, both with the individual campsites and the huge shared common area.  The kids could wander really far pretty safely.  It was certainly not "roughing it" camping — the loop around the common area was paved (perfect for bikes, next time?), all sites had running water and electricity plug ins, and the common area had a huge covered area with water, electricity, tables, grills and a really nice firepit!  The bathrooms were a ways off, but super clean, never crowded, and had pay showers.  And there was a playground right there!  Pretty perfect for us!

That said, it was not all roses and sunshine — though I do think it went pretty well for a first try with 3 kids under 5.  Here’s a slideshow of all of our pictures, as well as some of the highs and lows of the weekend:

Highs:

• Driving went well.  Even though we left late and got stuck in traffic heading out of town, the girls were great travelers and only a minimal bit of whining at the end.  Packing snacks, books, and toys helped a lot with this (and timing travel for nap time on Friday).    
• The group site, as mentioned above, was awesome.  
• The company was also great.  So fun to spend some time and get to know some other families with twins (many with 3 or more kids, woohoo!).  Its great to see and be around people who "get it" with regards to the joys and challenges of multiples and larger families.
• On Saturday we went for a walk/hike that meandered through wooded trails, a huge grassy field, a path with blackberry bushes for picking, and then a rocky beach for playing and snack.  The return hike was also fun, for awhile anyway, but eventually things got a little dicey (everyone was tired and hungry, we got a little lost, we only had one carrier which Elsie was happy to ride in, but Delia was both exhausted and fighting being held in arms as we tried to power our way back to the campground), but everyone recovered quickly with food, so that was good!  
• Meals were great.  Dinner Friday was beans and rice (a slacker bag mix) with cheese, tortillas tomatoes and lettuce, and spicy sausages for the grownups.  Dinner the second night was a potluck, we brought baked beans from a can!  Breakfasts and lunches were bagels/bread with cream cheese, PB&J, cereal, deli meat and lots of fruit & baby carrots.  Last breakfast was scrambled eggs, fancy fancy!   All really easy stuff, and everyone liked it.   
• So glad I packed TOYS!  Not a ton, but some select things to keep them entertained during down times.  Elsie and Delia played with the buckets and shovels in the gravel a LOT.  Emma enjoyed gluing googly eyes to rocks and sticks to make little families. Books, balls, a frisbee, animals, and a few a couple new-to-us bendy people that I had tucked away for a special occasion rounded it out.  
• I also made a camping scavenger hunt, which Emma had fun with (with lots of grownup help reading, obviously, though I did go in and draw little pictures for everything) but it was a bit much for most of the little ones in our group I think! Better geared for kids 5-8 year olds, I’m thinking?  
• Totally, totally recommend bringing a little plastic potty if you have potty-trainers or kids not used to peeing in nature.  Worked great for us!  Also things we appreciated having:  lots of ziplock bags, wipes, hand sanitizer, crocs and socks for the kiddies (as well as sturdier shoes for walks), fleece footed pajamas for sleeping, and a carrier (Ergo) for longer hikes with the little ones (I forgot one, so we only had one and wished we had two).  

 Lows:

• Packing.  OMG, packing sucked.  I really and truly feel like I was packing (and shopping) beforehand for about as long as we were actually camping.  I am sure this will get better now that we know what kind of camping gear we have, what we need, and where it all is, but still!  Packing was a big ordeal and not fun.  Having a master list would probably be a great idea…
• Sleeping.  The kiddies did not sleep well.  Emma was pretty good, but Elsie and Delia took way longer to go to sleep than usual (playing and talking for a hour or so, keeping Emma awake too), didn’t nap much, if at all, woke off and on all night long and slept on me, nursing, for the rest of it.  Blah.  Part of this was due to a cold and horrible coughs that of course got WAY worse for those two nights we were there.  They were miserable at night, and I was too.   I hope (hope hope!) that this goes better next time, and assume with more experience with it they will. They are used to cribs, not cosleeping, and the combo of sleeping uncontained and within reach of mama makes for a really restless night for us all!  
• Emma definitely had some challenges the first 24 hours or so, adjusting to the change in environment.  This is normal for her — she likes her own room, her own bed, her own stuff and routines and is very disoriented when she does not have them.  Which is is understandable, for sure, but it meant much unpleasantness at various points until she magically determined that camping was indeed fun, about halfway through the weekend.   

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