House Bus Trip

 A couple weekends ago, Stephen and I took our first camping trip since before the kids were born. It's been forever, so we were excited, but a little apprehensive given the kids are pretty young. Our only requirement = we are not ready for tent camping. With little kids? No thanks.

So! Thankfully, the crew was on board to convert this trip to an RV camping trip. The Gates and us had never been RV camping before, so we were excited to try it out.  I was telling Miles we were going camping and told him all the fun things we'd be doing. 

"Miles, guess what? We're going camping. Do you know what camping is?"

"Outside!"

"Right! We place outside ALLLL day! AND we get to sleep in a BUS!"

-- his eyes lit up --

We rented our RVs from a site similar to Airbnb, but for RVs. We arranged to pick ours up on the way while Becky and Todd picked theirs up beforehand so they could prep and pack before leaving. It proved to be the way to go. When Miles got up from nap - he instantly wanted to see their "bus".

He runs over SO excited, opens the door and says "Mama...no bus. Dis no bus. HOUSE bus!" So funny. 

We got everything packed up and headed out right on time. Usually we're the ones running late so this time, THIS time, we were right on track. So we thought... it took 1.5 hours... HOURS to pick up the RV. This guy did not have his stuff together and the kids were pissed. We got to our site at 6:30pm and frantically rushed to get everything setup for bedtime. No bueno... The kids were excited, confused and overly tired since we were late getting them to bed, but we made it through and enjoyed some drinks by the fire.

TGIF - let the real camping begin!

Miles and Carson kind of wandered for the first bit of the day, but it didn't take long for Miles to find the dirt. 

Carson being part of the gang. So cute!

The amount of dirtiness increased by the hour...

... and then they added water.

Birdie getting some extra love

The boys had never had S'mores before. Miles was more interested in 1. eating the mallows from the bag, 2. lighting his mallow on fire and 3. trashing the toasted mallow, trashing the grahams and eating just the chocolate... whatever works for you dude.

The kids were exhausted. Totally drained. Stephen and I did dinner alone with them and quickly transitioned to an early bedtime. Needless to say, they crashed.

We headed over to what we thought would be a fire pit gathering, but apparently the bugs were terrible. While Stephen and I were getting the kids settled, the rest of our crew was fighting off what seamed to be flying maggots, mosquitos, roaches and the crazy biting gnat swarms. With all the layers of clothes and insane amounts of bug spray, the bugs still had a leg up - literally. So, we had to get creative.

Our "campfire" compliments of twinkle lights. And our entertainment? This little bug eating toad.

Without the ability to fish or swim because of the rank water, day 2 was pretty much the same routine. Wake up, breakfast and play play play. The weather was *supposed* to be nice, but unfortunately we got hit with some nasty, muggy, hot, uncomfortable conditions. The afternoons were the hardest, so today, we had to do something to break the heat. 

Scooter car wash for the win!

"Miles! Go stand by the girls for a photo!".... uhh... hahahaaa!

Ah - that's better :)

*love*

If nasty weather, flying maggots and roaches weren't enough, this park just had to throw in this insanely scary spider. It was just hanging out making a web in Lia's chair. Pretty positive it was a black widow. Pretty positive Todd burned it.

But, one cool thing? A family of deer just trotted out of the woods right next to our site. Carson was obsessed and B-lined it clear across the street trying to chase them (don't worry, we were with him)

The face of a happy kiddo :D

LOVE this photo!! So happy we got everyone in there

And this - priceless. 

Family photo-op that pretty much sums up the weekend. Dirt, tractors, sweaty parents and silly kids. 

The last night's bedtime was the best of them all. Kids went down pretty much without any trouble. I feel like it took Stephen and I that couple days to figure out what the best method was, but we got it. After the kids were down, we headed over to the "fire" to hear some strange noises in the woods. I thought nothing of it, but then Beth came over. "Guys, I'm pretty sure there are wild hogs surrounding our site." Hogs... wild hogs. Right as we thought we'd seen the worst of Choke Canyon - it throws hogs in our face. Thanks but no thanks

The next day, we packed up and headed home. 

Despite all the .... eh hem. Unique? .... aspects of the trip, we all had such a blast. We can't wait for the next one! (It's only up from here, right?)