PK — aka pre kids — Korey and I really enjoyed going camping several times, whether it was on our own or with Kyle and Melissa. However, like most things in life, camping changes when you have kids. And I don’t know about you, but I didn’t want to go camping with a screaming infant in a tent. By about the time Crosby was getting old enough to go, Korey was pregnant with Carlyn — which is probably also not an ideal camping situation.
That all being said, they both are now old enough, so we ventured out to give it a go for the first time. When we went to book a campsite a about two months ago, I was really surprised to hear how booked everything was. Korey found an opening at a Jellystone Park, which looking back turned out to be either a really good or really bad option. Given the name you can imagine that it was going to be very kid friendly, but we’ll get to that shortly.
Thursday afternoon I went and borrowed a cargo carrier which would prove to be a near necessity given all the junk we ended up bringing. I don’t think we would have made it without that and the heavy duty bins I got at Costco. Friday afternoon we loaded up all the gear, some firewood, and the kids. Now as Korey starts to back out her car, we can very quickly see that the cargo carrier was hanging a bit lower than it should. Rather than chance fate, we unloaded everything and I removed the extra piece that allowed the carrier to fold up, but also drastically increased the leverage of the things in the bins. Taking that piece off made a big difference, and a few minutes later we were on our way.
Given that we left a bit later, we definitely hit some traffic in Austin, but the drive still wasn’t too bad. We got there in about an hour and a half, and got ushered to our campsite. We had one right on the end next to a dry creek bed and across from the big playground. The kids immediately wanted to go play while Korey and I started to set up the tent and screen house. This was the first time that we’d used our new tent, so it took a few minutes to figure out the best order to do things, but then it popped up pretty quickly after that.
We tried out the induction burner that I got the other day and had some unusual camping food… chinese meal in a bag. Despite being unconventional, it was still really good. After playing at the playscape some more, it was about time to start the bon fire. One of the benefits of having the bins was that I was able to bring quite a bit of wood. The kids were both loving having the fire and were all about roasting marshmallows.. so much so that we went through the rest of the bag. Somehow we had some Godiva chocolate bars so they were high end s’mores.
We had brought two air mattresses with the hopes that the kids would sleep on one and we get the other which worked out well for the first several hours. They were so exhausted from running around all day that they were willing to cuddle together (each in their own sleeping bags). It was pretty cool, so I’m not sure if it was the cold that woke Carlyn up or what it was, but she wanted to crawl in bed with us which was fine for a bit… until she got out and then woke Crosby up as well. In the end, he and I squeezed into one sleeping bag and the low bed, and Korey and Carlyn were in the other. Moving around wasn’t easy, but having two of us in their certainly kept us warm! Good thing too because it got down closer to 40 that night.
Saturday was action packed. I decided that a quick fire would be a good idea to thaw everyone out after the cold night. Then after we made hash browns and bacon for breakfast, we all went and said the pledge with Boo Boo before making our way over to the “Hey Hey” ride which was appropriately named since there really was no hay. For $4, each of the kids got some magic pumpkin seeds to plant in the pumpkin patch — where due to the magic, they could come back a few hours later and harvest their bounty. The campground also had a big bouncing pillow so we went over there for a bit. The kids were having a blast jumping around! The big kids there playing tackle football weren’t as pleased when Korey went and laid down the law, but it was certainly something that needed to be done. There were way too many little kids for high schoolers to be running around haphazardly.
Korey and Carlyn ran out to grab a few odds and ends (like more marshmallows, hats, and lunch) while Crosby and I stayed and played for a bit. When the girls got back, we ate the sandwiches and then wanted to try out these big pedal bikes. They had some where two adults could pedal and the kids could ride in the front. We piled them on in, and rode down towards our campsite to get some straps to buckle them in. We then tried to go back up the hill and came to the conclusion that something was stuck on our bike since it was so hard to pedal. So we pushed it up the hill and went to get another one.. only to find out that it wasn’t broken, it was just nearly impossible to move. Eventually we gave up, and I got a single which was much easier to pedal around, but still far from easy. I let Crosby drive and I ended up just pushing him around for a bit before our time ran out.
If trying to take those things around the campgrounds accomplished one thing, it was that it got me hot enough to want to go swimming. Crosby and I went up to the pool. I stuck my toe in and said no way. We tried the other outdoor pool and I was willing to get in the at one, but it was too cold for Crosby. We heard the indoor pool was better, so we went up that way. Thankfully, it was warmer so we did eventually get in. Shortly after that, Korey and Carlyn came in so all four of us went swimming. The kids were taking turns jumping to me which was really cute. Carlyn starting getting impatient, so she would start to push him a bit which everyone was laughing at.
After swimming, it was about time to get costumes on. Korey brought the crayon and penguin costumes for them to wear which got a lot of compliments. After they were dressed, Korey took them to play a bit more while I made dinner. We shared a ribeye and two kinds of mac and cheese (some for us and some for the kids) — all of which turned out really well!
Camp or treat was such a great idea! The kids could walk around to all (or most) of the different camp sites and go trick or treating. Given that they were all close together, it made it really quick to do which is not a bad thing with two little ones. All the people were super nice to them both. Crosby was as vocal as ever, with very nice, “Happy Halloweens, Trick or Treats, and Thank You’s.” That was all until we got to place with two bowls where he saw chocolate in one and asked if he could have chocolate instead. Which he proceeded to do at the next stop as well — except for the fact that they didn’t have chocolate… so we had to teach him about trick or treating manners. Carlyn was getting the hang of things too and managed to get her version of “Thank you” out too!
One other funny Crosby-ism was about sharing he said, “I’ll share my candy with daddy.” When Korey asked about her, he said, “No.. you can share with Carlyn.” They proceeded to start eating some of their bounty when we got back to the camp site as I started our third fire in about 24 hours. The chocolate vanilla marshmallows didn’t quite work the same as regular one and were really sticky, but they still tasted good!
It had been a very busy day, so everyone else was ready to crash pretty early. I decided to venture out and check out the haunted ghost town which was actually pretty well done. I didn’t get jumped out at, but there’s no way Crosby would have made it through.
Sleeping Saturday night went about the same as the previous night. The kids made it through the first several hours fine on their own, but we ended up boys and girls for the latter half.
All of the sudden our weekend was about over. I made bacon and pancakes for breakfast while the kids went and played some more on the playscape. After that, we started packing everything up to go home… and wondered a bit how we made it there considering how full everything was — and we had an extra storage bin since we burned most of the fire wood. One last trip to the bouncing pillow, and we were on our way!
All in all, it was a great trip and I think we all had a lot of fun. I’d definitely like to go camping again with them in the spring and would love to go back to one of the Jellystones next year for their Halloween weekend.
Insight, Perspective, and View into Life 