That time we went camping…

I have had this blog post half written for a ridiculous time, and it occurred to me that our camping trip was about 2.5 months ago and it was time to get this post published!!
 

 

Yep, we went camping with a two-and-a-bit month old baby. Honestly, camping with babies is way less stressful with babies than toddlers. Babies stay in one spot when you put them down. Babies stay in their warm clothes once you’ve got them dressed. Babies don’t try and play with the fire.

Anyway. We went camping at the beautiful Kenilworth Homestead. It’s a great place for camping.. close enough to civilisation that you can go and buy things that you may have forgotten, it has flushing toilets and hot water showers, and acres of beautifully manicured green grass on the banks of the Mary River.

It’s a cool place, and has heaps of memories for me, because my family actually lived there (in a tiny duplex behind the main homestead in the picture there) in the early 1990’s when my dad used to be on staff running camps. Chances are if you went on a school camp in the 90s at the Kenilworth Homestead, my dad cooked your food and organised your activities. So it was extra cool for me to go back and check everything out from an adult perspective.

We chose a gorgeous shady spot to set up our campsite. We went with a couple of other families, and decided to set up Petes ridiculously enormous tarp as a central ‘living area’, with our family tents around it. This is the first time that we had opened up Pete’s tarp which he got for his birthday last year, and we knew it was big but boy…. is it big!!!

Quinten was our site supervisor, and gave Keith from The Block a run for his money!!

Pete was in his element. Between our group we had enough equipment for a really great set up.

Our tarp had plenty of room for a kitchen and dining area, as well as a 3x3m picnic rug which made a play space for the kids.

 

Our family realised that we would no longer fit in our tent! Luckily Pete still had an old 4-man stowed away, so we set that up for the kids.

Both sides of our family has since chipped in for Pete’s dream tent for his birthday present. Boy-oh-boy… just you wait till you see it!

Pete kept the fire going for the whole weekend, and we cooked some pretty delicious food on there. Pete had it down to a fine art, and the kids were all completely enthralled and very keen to help whenever possible.

 
We spent the days hanging out by the river, sitting around talking and doing an awful lot of eating!

Mayana is standing in front of the schoolhouse where I started my education. She couldn’t believe that this was my school.. it didn’t match up with her experience of what school is at all! The building is in disuse now, and is filled bits of broken furniture and pieces of wood. There are signs up warning against entering. But it still brought back a lot of memories… it’s a pretty special place to me – I learned to read there!

  

Quinten coped splendidly. It was quite cold, which disrupted his sleeping a little, but once he was snuggled into bed with Mama and Papa, we all got a bit more shut-eye.

And well.. this photo of Mayana and Reuben not long after we pulled out of the driveway of the homestead is pretty telling as to how much fun they had!!

Camping is something that Pete and I both love to do, but seem to put off, thinking that it will be too much work with the kids. I’m glad that whenever we decide to do it we always prove ourselves wrong, and find it pretty much the complete opposite.

Pete has a whole week of holidays booked in the September school holidays and we are looking very much forward to heading out for another family camping trip and trying out our brand new house-tent!

A Camping Adventure

We have been planning to go camping for AGES. Last time we went camping, Mayana was only about 10 weeks old! Since then we have collected a few more bits and pieces, and talked a lot about little changes we would make to ensure that the experience was comfortable and enjoyable.

Of course, life got busy… weekends were rainy, and somehow we haven’t managed to do another camping trip in four years! Every time we’d have a plan it would rain or someone would get sick. This time we asked my sister and her husband to join us, we set a date and decided to stick to it. Pete even took a day off work so we could make it a long weekend. Unbeknownst to me, he had also invited a whole stack of people to come and join us as well, as a celebration for my birthday. He’s never organised anything for my birthday before, let alone a surprise like this! Unfortunately rain was forecast for the weekend, and one-by-one people who had planned to come pulled out. Eventually, on the day we were meant to leave, Pete told me of the plans that had fallen through. He was so disappointed! We questioned whether to bother going, because to be honest we didn’t really fancy camping in the mud that much either! However, we decided to go out for a drive and check out the area. We’d chosen a camping ground only about 25 minutes from home, and when we got out there we saw that the ground was actually reasonably dry, and after agonising over the weather apps on our phone for a while, we rang my sister with the news that the camping trip was back on. Rain or not.

And I’m so glad we went. Sure, it rained pretty much all night Friday, and most of the day Saturday, but my clever husband had rigged up a fabulous shelter that kept us and our belongings dry, tweaked very carefully with the dozens of ropes that he is obsessed with having (they’ve finally come in handy babe!). I had invested $30 in a large, heavy duty tarp which became our floor, and that along with the massive 3mx3m picnic rug that we bought from Aldi a few years ago meant that we even had a dry floor, and plenty of space for Reuben and Mayana to crawl and play. On Saturday afternoon the sky became lighter, and slowly but surely patches of blue began to appear. By Saturday night the sky was filled with stars, and we woke to a perfect blue sky on Sunday morning. Everything (including the ground) dried out so quickly, and we had a perfect camping day for our last day.

My aunty and her partner and my cousin’s little girl came out for a surprise visit in the rain on Saturday. Even though they couldn’t come and stay, it was so so lovely that they made the 4 hour round trip just to come and hang out for a while.

We ended up having such a lovely time, and none of us regretted going, in spite of our one rainy day. It was fun to live simply for a weekend, with no technology and distractions, being able to give 100% quality time to each other and the kids, engaging in fun games with Mayana, eating, playing board-games and chatting... I’m so glad we went. And it wasn’t as hard to organise and clean up from as I had built it up to be in my head. Peter really is a fabulous person to go camping with. He is efficient, and does a great job at making a comfortable space. We feel that we have a good enough set up that we could easily go for a weekend camp on a whim, especially that the spot so close to home where we camped this weekend. We are already looking forward to the next time we can go out!

Until then, I’m sure we’ll all enjoy looking at our photos from the weekend and reliving the lovely memories that we made…

We went for a few walks in the rain. I bought the Safari sling with us, and Reuben enjoyed riding with his Tante Boo. He LOVES umbrellas and thinks he’s so clever holding onto them.

Mayana was absolutely delighted to have her cousin Keira visit our campsite!

No dodgy camping food for us! Bethanie and I cooked up gourmet dinners and breakfasts, we definitely ate well…

On our rainy day, Pete dug trenches with his heel to keep the water away from our campsite, and then went for a dunk in the freezing cold lake to get the mud off. When the sun came out we all went for a swim in the lake and it was absolutely beautiful.

Our brother in law Lachlan took charge of a lot of the cleanup (did I mention how much I LOVE our camp kitchen? Makes life so much easier) and Mayana was his very willing assistant.

Reuben has started playing peek-a-boo and thinks he is just so hilarious. Let’s face it, he kind of is. Cutest baby ever.

Our brilliant, dry set-up.

On Saturday morning I snuck down to the lake to take some pictures of the reflection while the water was glass-still.

Pete was most impressed with his bargain $5.00 double burner gas stove! It was the perfect addition to our camp kitchen. Look how brilliant our living area was!

I just can’t get enough of that smile!

Bringing along a drawing book and a pencil case was the best idea ever. Even when it was raining and Mayana was confined to a relatively small space, she was quite happy to entertain herself with drawing many gorgeous pictures.

I love this jump between this photo and the next. One minute he’s sitting peacefully watching what’s going on around him, when suddenly he realises his Papa is mixing up his wheetbix, and he wants it NOW!!

Camping in the rain was made bearable by the fact that I had dry feet. And when it was really rainy, I also had gumboots. If I had had wet feet and a muddy floor, I’m pretty sure I would have made Pete take me home immediately!

Reuben has been doing a lot of standing up without holding on lately. Of course as soon as he realises he’s not holding on he gets a fright and falls over. I managed to snap this blurry picture for evidence. He actually took his first independent steps not long after this was taken! He can only manage about four in a row, but it’s definitely a start!

Mayana loved helping in whatever way she could. She absolutely had the best time camping, and tells me she even loved it when it rained.

When the sun came out, Pete strung up his hammock and invited me to go spend some time reading. It was lovely, and I was feeling very dozy laying there in the sun when I suddenly heard footsteps coming towards me. I peered over the edge expecting to see Mayana, and instead was confronted with a huge and very disconcerting goanna! I squeaked to Pete to come and help me (although the rational part of me knew that he wasn’t going to be able to jump up in the hammock), and jumped out of that thing quick smart when he made a mad dash up the tree that my hammock was attached to!

Blergh. Still gives me the shivers!

We had gone for a walk in the rain and found this gorgeous spot, and I was very keen to go back and take some photos when the sun came out. We went back and got these snaps just before we left on Sunday.

It was a little more rippled than I would have liked, because Mayana and the boys were having great fun throwing and skimming rocks in the lake!

Isn’t she just the prettiest!

And isn’t he just he handsomest!

So there you have it… we FINALLY went camping. It was a brilliant weekend, and we hope that next time we have some other people who would like to join us!

What a weekend

We had a fantastic weekend, camping at Sommerset Dam with new friends from our church. It really was great. We haven’t been camping since Pete’s birthday 3 years ago, and boy, that was an adventure. We took Alexie and Jordan (my bro & sis), camped at Crows Nest, it got down to –1degrees at night, we had one queen-sized airbed to share, cooked over the open fire, had no lights… Let’s just say it was a loooooong night – good memories though!

This weekend, we were living in the lap of luxury… I’m talking five-star camping my friend. Over the last 3 years since *that* camping trip, we have collected a whole lot of little goodies, our favourites being our camp kitchen, and our tarp. So this camping trip was a horse of a different colour. See for yourself!

We spent Saturday down at the dam, friends we were with had the loan of a ski boat, so those that were so inclined allowed themselves to be dragged behind it on various devices. Pete had a go on the wakeboard – it took him a few goes but he got up eventually. I declined.

Mayana was SUCH a good baby, and as far as we can tell loved her first camping trip. She kept fairly well in her routine, we still managed to have her pretty well asleep by 7pm, and she slept through till 5.30/6pm both mornings. What a little angel! There are pictures of her camping experience at my brag book blog.

The only sucky thing about the weekend was the amount of pain I was in. On Thursday night, I went to bed with a very sore ear, though I just thought it was maybe a pimple in my ear…

Over the weekend it got progressively worse, and by Sunday i was in SO much pain. On Saturday night, we made the snap decision to go home to Noosa instead of Toowoomba on Sunday after camping. We don’t have uni till Wednesdays, so we decided to stay until Tuesday. And that’s what we did! We didn’t tell anyone we were coming, just surprised Mama and Papa- and surprised they were! They were very thrilled to have a visit with their little Friend Family.

I took myself to the hospital and saw a GP who pronounced I have an acute outer-ear infection, and prescribed an oral antibiotic as well as an ear-drop antibiotic. Between that and the ibuprofen/paracetamol cocktail I’ve been downing every 4 hours I’m feeling okay now (though I’ve seen a few very scary nappies in the last few days!). Still in a bit of pain, and still feeling fairly deaf but I’m pleased to say I’m on the mend.

So home yesterday, now here we are, on the countdown to my birthday! This year, Pete’s starting my birthday week on my birthday, meaning it will end with Easterfest and my family coming to visit. Only 4 more sleeps! Apparently Mayana has told Pete what she wants to get me for my birthday, and they are going shopping together tomorrow ;)

For now, I have to go because my gorgeous daughter has just woken up from her (nearly 3.5 hour!!!!) morning nap.. I’ll bet she has a VERY full nappy, and is absolutely starving…