This weekend we took Hayden camping. It was his first time. We were all so excited. Hyping up the whole camping gig for WEEKS before leaving. You get to play outside ALL DAY, there is dirt and TONS of the tallest trees ever, and lots of wildlife like birds and bugs and dragonflies. And the TENT...oh yes, you are going to LOVE the tent. And did I mention FIRE...there will be fire and you can get sort of near it! Does this not sound like every little boy's dream? We left the house at around 3pm (after driving around doing some last minute shopping for something that resembled a reasonably priced Thermarest mattress) and headed over I-90. We were going to Lake Easton State Park which is near Cle Elum, WA (a little over an hour away). We have camped there before pre-Hayden and it is pretty nice.

We stopped at the top of the pass on the way there and did some exploring around the Snoqualmie Tunnel- an old railroad tunnel that is now part of the Iron Horse Trail and open to hiking and biking and exploring. Cameron had ridden through it on his way to Lake Easton the first time we went. He was biking with a few friends and I ended up meeting them at the campground with all of our gear to camp. This time though we just parked and walked the short distance to the tunnel and went inside to explore. The tunnel was cold and WET (big drips from the old ceiling) and super dark. This was when we first realized that we only had one flashlight and it was Hayden's kiddie one. Great. We brought a lantern, but no flashlight. Anyway, we headed inside and only stayed a short while. It was nice and warm outside, but we didn't last long inside the cold, damp tunnel. Hayden seemed to really enjoy exploring there.

Then we headed to find our campsite. On the website (where I booked everything in advance) the measurements and location of the site looked great. I did this over a month ago and the availability was still pretty good, so I had many sites to choose from and I picked this one. We pulled in and I was shocked at how small the site looked. Our car was parked mere feet from our fence. I think the thing that I was forgetting was that having a site that is skinny and longer is better than having one that is as wide as it is long. You need depth off the road, not breadth in this situation. But, it was fine. We got out of the car and we were not standing there longer than maybe 2 minutes and our camping neighbors came over. Jackson (who we later found out was 4 1/2 years old) and his dad. He introduced Jackson (sort of), not himself and said it was ok for Jackson to play with Hayden and proceeded to go back through the short path to his camp site.

When he left, Jackson started running around trying to get Hayden to play with him. Picture squealing and laughing and just general playing noises encircling us as we put up the tent. Great, we have started a nature daycare now...and the best part is, it's free. You just bring your kid, introduce him, and leave. That's what nature lovers do. They let their kids run free in the woods without a care in the world. Jackson's dad was a cowboy hat wearing, smoking, big truck driving man who looked to be in his late 30's. We were thinking instantly that he was Eastern WA folk who are way more laid back than us 206'ers. BUT...after leaving his kid with us, he went back over to his truck where he had his laptop set up with his tunes blaring (Sheryl Crow of all things) and he was drinking RedHook ESB! Shocking. So he has a mix of urban and country. Interesting.

We set up camp, took a walk (which upon doing so put us face to face with an ATV driving, mohawk doning, crazy woods man who almost took us out on the "nature" trail), and then headed back to find wood and make dinner. Cameron paid $1 per log and got us some backup wood for our Duraflame that we brought (don't laugh- we don't do fire very well). Jackson was still roaming around when we returned, but the kids were having fun (making chairs into spaceships, digging in the dirt with their trucks, and running around with the infamous Bubble Pig- thanks Trevor!). After dinner we made S'mores and had a few other fun snacks. We did some coloring and such, but mostly the men tended the fire until it was time to settle into bed.

Hayden crawled into the tent and was so excited to get bundled in his Cars sleeping bag and watch Shrek for a while. He hung out in there all alone while Cameron and I sat by the fire. He was having a great time....until we told him we were coming to bed and it was time to go to sleep. We entered the tent at 9:45pm.

The rest of the night is a bit of a blur. At first it was shreiks of "I'm All Done!" or "I Don't Want To Sleep!" or "I Want to Go HOOMMMEEE!"...etc, etc...you get the idea. We tried to calm him down and tell him that he was disturbing the other campers (hey, guilt comes in handy sometimes), but he was still upset. He probably woke everyone within one square mile of our tent. We went back and forth from crying to being ok. He wanted to be held one minute, then the next we were too close to him and crowding his "friends". He needed his space, but then he wanted to be on top of me at the same time. Crazy kid. I told him he was safe and that he was in a mom and dad sandwich. His repsonse? "I AM HUNNNNGGRRRRYYYY!!!" I WANT A SNAAAACCKKK". Ugh, I mention the word sandwich and he is off onto needing food. Great.

And did I mention that camping things are all very slickery. We were slip sliding all over the freakin' place. The Thermarests, the sleeping bags...all slickery. Screw slickery things. Sheesh. After the food thing passed, then he wanted water. So, I agreed to go and get him some. It was really a selfish move on my part since I had to pee so badly and didn't want to for fear it would disturb him even more if I left the tent! So I got the water, and handed it to Cameron in the tent and went to pee. I didn't venture too far, just a little ways away from the tent. If this is too much information, just skip down 2 paragraphs. ;-) I went...and went...and went...and Cameron asked, "Wow, how much are you going to go?!? You aren't going to pee into the tent are you??!" Well, crap, come to think of it, I am pretty close to the tent and I AM peeing DOWNHILL...oops. I said calmly, "Um, no" (with tone, like I am not THAT stupid) and then frantically started using my foot to cover with sand what I pictured to be a river of pee headed directly for our tent. Disaster was diverted. Phew.

Then I got back in, and just as soon as we were settling in again, a train went by. There might as well have been tracks inside there with us. It was so loud and all Hayden wanted to know was why the train wasn't sleeping. HE was working, He got to be outside and not in the tent. After listening to the longest train on Earth pass by, we settled in again only to hear "I HAVE TO POOP!" piercing the silence. This was followed by the ever-popular "HELP ME PUSH MY POOP OOOUUUTTTT! (grunt, grunt). I wish I could little man. He got over that pretty quickly, then after a few rounds of singing to him he went to sleep. He probably thought, or Lord, she's pulling out the songs. OK, game over...goodnight.

Hayden FINALLY went to sleep around 2am! Did I mention that we got INTO the tent for bed at 9:45pm?? Yeah, I thought I did. The rest of the night was restless. Trying to get comfy and then not even moving when we weren't for fear of waking the beast. I was up a lot looking at my watch, wondering when the light would come so this could all be over. I am so glad we decided to stick it out though, rather than give in and pack up our things at 1am and head home like he would have liked. Don't laugh, we've done it before. We were up at 6am and packed and ready to go by 8:30am. Hayden was asleep in the car by 8:40 and slept all the way home and for a while in the car in the driveway too. He was pretty cranky the rest of the day, but we survived.

So besides feeling like we had 2 kids for a while and dealing with our smoking neighbors, the crazy ATV guy, and the "pee incident" and god awful night's "sleep", it really was a WONDERFUL time. It actually was fun and we will try it again...perhaps we will take another trial run in our backyard before venturing out again.

See all of our camping pics here. -- mam