Maiden Voyage of the new camper

As I mentioned in the last post we went camping last weekend. It is probably our number one favorite thing to do in the summer. I have been camping my entire life and we started taking Madelyn the summer she turned one. We have always been in a tent but decided that with two kids it would probably be best to upgrade. We found a very nice pop-up camper on Craigslist and it is just perfect for us. We had quite the first trip out with it though.

We went out last Thursday. We had been watching the weather all day because it was supposed to rain at some point. Craig had a problem with something on the hitch and as he was working on it I just watched the clouds come rolling in. He finally finished what he needed to do and we took off. The campground is about 30 minutes away from where we live. I was super proud of how well Craig backed the camper in since it was the first time he's ever done something like that. We tried keeping the girls in the car as long as we could so they would be out of the way but Madelyn got antsy pretty quick. We started setting up the camper and when I went to put together the beds I realized we left a pole in the garage. Craig and Madelyn ran back in while Elise and I stayed to finish getting things put together. Craig had checked the weather right before he left because we could hear some thunder. He said that we should be fine and that the storm that was coming should miss us. Not even 15 minutes after they left it started raining. Then it started raining harder. Then it started hailing! It was crazy. It looked like it had snowed it hailed so much! Craig and Madelyn made it back and we ate some supper and attempted to get the girls to bed. It was still raining and super windy so it took a lot of effort. We put a movie in for Madelyn and she ended up staying up until 11! Elise went to sleep easily but woke up at 1 and 3 and was overly fascinated with her hands. She was squealing and giggling. As tired as I was it was so cute.

The weather the rest of the weekend was pretty darn cold and we spent a lot of time in my parents camper since it's bigger. We had grabbed Madelyn's tennis shoes but didn't realize they were a size and half to small! She wouldn't even put them on because she said they hurt her feet. The only other thing she had was a pair of flip flops and her feet were freezing. I ended up taking a pair of socks and making a cut in the toes so that she could put the socks on and still wear her flip flops. Yeah. Just call me MacGyver. :) She didn't win any fashion awards but she was warm.

The first camping trip was definitely a success. We learned a lot about some things that would make everything go faster. We can't wait to take it out again. We're going out the 2nd weekend in June and I'm hoping it's a lot warmer then it was last weekend!

Here are just a few pictures:


Madelyn relaxing in her sleeping bag the first night


Craig and Madelyn after he gave her a rice crispy treat right before bedtime. lol


Elise napping in the camper


My girls!