Our First Camping Trip!

One of the things on our bucket list for this research time was to go on a family camping trip. Jeremy did a lot of camping/backpacking in college but I have never been camping. I think because we were so inexperienced we didn't know how ridiculous it sounded to say we were going on our first camping trip with a 3 -year-old and a 11-month-old -- but the looks people gave us were quite telling. We borrowed some gear, bought sleeping bags, packed a cooler and were on our way.

We met up with Doda Kelly and her boys at Rocky Gap State Park in Maryland. It was a great half-way point for our rendezvous and  the park was so nice. Tons of activities for kids at the nature center and everything was well-maintained. It was "car camping" (similar to KOA) where you had a designated slot (flat land for tent, fire pit and hang-line) you could drive your car up to.There were nice bathrooms not a far walk from our site with hot water and showers. I know, not exactly roughing it but with kids it was the perfect first camping scenario.

My one hesitation about camping was the I am TERRIFIED of snakes. TERRIFIED. Kelly assured me that she has been camping (both with and without) the kids dozens of times and has never seen a snack. Andy (her military husband) assured me that he has slept in fields with nothing but  a pack and NEVER seen a snake. Jeremy backpacked in the wilderness of NC for two weeks, never saw a snake. So with all of this wonderful resassurance I agreed to not freak out about snakes.

Until we pulled up to our camp site and there were two rangers panning both campsites with a long mental pole with a hook on the end of it while a little kid from the next site over yelled - "There's a rattlesnake on your campsite! I saw it right there! There's a RATTLESNAKE!!"

OF COURSE THERE IS.

The snake couldn't be found but the rangers kindly left the snake hook (wow, thanks!) We set up tents as I freaked out. We told the boys (3, 3, and 5) to stay on the paths and not wander into the brush. We kept a really close eye on on them. And in the middle of the night every time I had to pee I made Jeremy wake up and walk to the bathrooms with me (well once I just peed outside the tent while freaking out about the snakes and peed on my foot).

But there were no snake sightings. We had an awesome weekend with Shabbat dinner on Friday night. Some rain forced us to an indoor bounce house place with the kids on Saturday afternoon but we still had lots of meals, roasted marshmallows/hot dogs and slept in tents. We went fishing in the (overfished) lake with night crawlers and challah as bait. We spent a good chunk of time there but the fish didn't bite. Owen didn't seem to care and still declared "Fishing with Doda Kelly" and marshmallows to be the best part of his trip. The boys had such a blast playing with each other, it was so fun to watch. Poor Gil, because he doesn't walk yet he was strapped to me for much of the trip. This was by far the hardest part. We finally gave in and moved his travel crib over by the fire so he could get down.

Overall it was a wonderful (exhausting) trip that made a huge impression on Owen.

As we drove away Jeremy said, "I'm really glad that snake wasn't around. None of our kids would have survived a Rattlesnake bite."

WHAT?!

See all of the pictures from our trip by clicking here!