We headed to Manchester last weekend to campout at Old Stone Fort Park with the Williams, Harrisons, Gates, and Hawkins. We had a blast. This had to be the easiest camping trip for Darin…I did all the packing, he showed up after work and our tent was already up fire going. He left in the morning (he had to work) and I had to take down the tent, clean up, and prod my two whiners on the hike. I unpacked and cleaned up everything when we got home. Easy peasy camping (except he can never sleep well on a campout and he had to work all day and Sunday too…maybe not so easy).
The kids loved roasting hot dogs, marshmallows, playing with glowsticks, and just running around with their friends. Luke and Emmy just chat away as they explore. Natalie couldn’t get enough of her Ellie. all during the hike she kept telling me she loved Ellie. Ellie was her favorite friend (she loves to use favorite to describe things these days).
They did enjoy parts of the hike: checking out the flints and arrowheads, seeing a snake, playing in the water at the falls, and eating Skittles along the way. But boy did they whine… I carried Natalie on my shoulders and hip for quite a bit of it. Luke complained that he couldn’t walk anymore because he feet were falling asleep. Lanie even carried him for a bit on the way back. We did walk over 2 miles total and they didn’t get much sleep so I guess I was setting myself up for a difficult time. But I still enjoyed it. Next time, Darin has to stick around for the hiking too!
Funny story: When Luke woke up (sort of) he realized he had moved off his sleeping mat in the night and away from his glowstick that was in the tent pocket. He grumped, “I hate camping, I’m not where I’m supposed to be.” So Darin scooted him back over and he grabbed his glowstick and curled back into his sleeping bag and fell asleep. haha, so silly.
He is sleeping in sleeping bag tonight and he so excited to go on the father-son campout this weekend with Daddy, so I guess he likes camping after all.
alittlebitofthepaynefultruth 
HA! So fun! I feel the same way about camping…lots of work and you don’t sleep well, but you certainly create the best memories!