Camping at Kent Park

Getting ready to go camping... I swear, I forget how it is every time I start packing up to go. It takes forever to get all the gear, food, and kids in order and packed to go, and then set up when you get there! We ended up going in the late afternoon/early evening this time, and I don't think I want to do that again. We got there, got the fire going, set up the tent while coals were being started, and by the time we got to eat it was getting late. The kids had fun staying up late and roasting marshmallows (I was pleased to find some at the local market that were dye-free! Yay!). Jude celebrated the tent being up by promptly taking a nap in it, as seen below. :)

The weather wasn't too bad for our trip. When we got out on Thursday it was hot, but it was late in the afternoon so not too bad for too long. The night was cool, but not freezing (not like camping in the mountains in Washington, I'll tell you!). Every thing was dewy, though, and I was wishing I'd brought tennis shoes instead of sandles.

As the day turned to afternoon on Friday it got hotter. Quite hot, in fact. So we went over to the lake and had a good swim, I brought a spray bottle to mist the baby with so he could keep cool too.
I even made him a little shade tent with one of the mats and our bags. :)

Wow, Jude looks so much like my family in this picture! Amazing! Anyway, I had to rebuild his shade house using a sarong because Leila wanted her mat back, and Jude thought the dolphins in the batik were the funniest thing ever. He's not laughing yet, but he does smile and coo, the coo will turn into a laugh in maybe another month? I can't remember when babies start laughing.

We stayed up even later on Friday night, because friends came out to join us and we had a good time around the campfire hanging out with them. :) Still, the kids were up by 7am the next morning. The night had been considerably warmer, but the morning was still a bit cool (probably upper 60s-low 70s). Jude thought 7am was a bit early. ;) I concurred.

After we had a lovely breakfast a storm set in, so we hung out in the tent for the duration. I had brought along some fabric markers and blank shirts so the kids decorated those and I spruced up a couple of Jude's prefolds. LOL. Then Leila wanted to hold her little buddy. She loves him so much, and it is so fun to see him smile back up at her. I think he'll be her biggest fan (when he's not telling her to give him space!).

I posted this on the other post, but I didn't really explain what they are doing. Ali and Elyas had a good time watching the rain pool on the rain fly, then roll down and off the tent. They did this for quite sometime, so peacefully. The rainstorm really wasn't that bothersome at all.

Of course, by the end of the storm Jude was ready for a nap. :)
You would think with such a heavy storm in the morning, the weather would stay mild through the day, but no, by the afternoon it was scorching again, so we headed back to the beach. Poor Jude, I forgot the mister back at camp, so I had to wet down a sarong and blot him down. The one drawback of this beach is it's utter lack of shade.

We had planned to stay Saturday night too, but unfortunately Leila got really constipated (I think started by a disdain of pit toilets, but she couldn't seem to go in the flushing toilets either, and I had to take drastic measures to help her when we got home, though she felt so much better when she finally went, poor baby. She's not my one to get constipated, so it was surprising it was her!). In any case, it was really fun! I just wish the mosquitoes weren't so vicious this year, I got at least 25 bites while we were out there.