I had intended to write about this overnight camp out as the culminating event to our project, but I just can't let myself go there yet. We have had so much fun, and I don't want to see this project end. Even with almost no sleep, I was squished between the pack 'n play and "little thrashing deer with kicking feet" a name that I made up in my delusional state some where in the wee hours of the morning, we all had a
great time! [A little background is that when we were in Colorado at the family reunion the children had a visit from two members of the Ute Indian tribe. Benjamin got the name Soaring Eagle from these two women. He then made up names for the rest of us in our family. Since that trip, we have been making up names for each other on occasion.] We are thinking we may try it one more time as we now have a little better idea of what it all entails, and we now know what things that we would do differently (
like bring the bigger tent). We'll see if we can schedule it in again, but I sure would like to.
We headed out for a state park close to our house. Both Stephen and I agreed that being 20mins. from our house at this stage was very appealing, especially for Emma being so young. We reserved our campsite online, and it was perfect. We lucked out and had a very private site. The campground felt like we were in the middle of the forest and while it was full of families, we hardly noticed anyone there. The best part about our site was that it had an adjoining blackberry patch. From the time camp was set up until dinner was ready, Benjamin picked blackberries. He got quite a sack full too as well as lovely red-stained fingers. It was the perfect distraction and appetizer for a little hungry tummy while dinner was cooking. Our dinner menu was quite adventurous, but in the end it turned out really well. I commented to Stephen how much better food tastes when camping. It all tasted so gourmet. The breakfast menu included blueberry pancakes for breakfast, but it was quickly switched to blackberry per the blackberry picking the night before, and they were delicious as well. (Stephen is already planning his next camping menu!)
For now, I am going with this not as the culminating event of the project, but a field trip to pursue answers to our last unanswered question which was what do you do when you go camping? I realized that in order to answer this that we needed to actually go camping because Benjamin didn't have any background knowledge. So we have some very simple answers to this question. Here are some things that we did when we went camping. . .
We picked blackberries.
We set up our tent.
We set up our camping kitchen and used our campstove for the first time. (Thanks Nana and Papa~ we really were very well equipped for our trip!)
We built a fire.
We set the table.
We cooked sweet corn over the campfire.
We cooked potatoes on the stove.
We cooked a delicious steak for Mom and Dad on the stove, and Benjamin roasted a hot dog over the fire.
We ate our fancy camp out dinner.
We sat by the fire told ghost stories, sang camp songs ("Down By the Bay" was the favorite), roasted s'mores, read our books, and . . .
even just relaxed by the fire before bed while Emma slept in the tent.
We settled in for the night. Some slept and some didn't.
We made breakfast in the morning.
And last but not least we all got a bit dirty!
Here is Benjamin's version of the the "Great Camp Out!" "I picked lots of blackberries. I ate a hot dog. I cooked lots of s'mores. Slept in a tent. Woke up the next morning and ate some yummy pancakes. I learned about camping that we can get prepared. We draw pictures of camping. And we pack Emma. Our car was so full. It was about as full as a big, big, big, hungry caterpillar. We built a fire. The rules of the fire were we don't play around it. I want to do it again. Eating s'mores was my favorite part of camping of all."
One day Daddy was baking some soup, and he saw a mouse running around the bakery. Mommy and me were shopping for some blankets for Emma. Daddy was running around keep trying to catch the mouse. Finally he smacked it and caught it. And then he took it outside. The End
We picked blackberries.
We got red stained fingers and . . .
a bag of blackberries.
We set up our tent.
We set up our camping kitchen and used our campstove for the first time. (Thanks Nana and Papa~ we really were very well equipped for our trip!)
We built a fire.
Emma rode in her front pack/ back pack almost the whole time.
We set the table.
We cooked sweet corn over the campfire.
We cooked potatoes on the stove.
We cooked a delicious steak for Mom and Dad on the stove, and Benjamin roasted a hot dog over the fire.
We ate our fancy camp out dinner.
We sat by the fire told ghost stories, sang camp songs ("Down By the Bay" was the favorite), roasted s'mores, read our books, and . . .
even just relaxed by the fire before bed while Emma slept in the tent.
We settled in for the night. Some slept and some didn't.
We made breakfast in the morning.
And last but not least we all got a bit dirty!
I can't believe that half a year has flown by already.