Girls Night Out - Camping at Monte Cristo

A few months ago, my dad reminded us that the annual Ridges Family Reunion was coming up - he was excited that his family had chosen to go camping overnight at Monte Cristo. As my sisters and I checked our calendars, our husbands very quickly came up with excuses as to why they would be unable to attend (okay, okay, they were legitimate). Steph, Kristen and I then came up with the brilliant plan to go anyway - who needs em? We thought, as we envisioned a leisurely weekend of gossiping and sipping diet coke as the children happily entertained one another. This photo was taken shortly after we arrived at our campground. I'll admit I was still optimistic even though Isaac SCREAMED his sweet little head off every inch of the two hour drive. But, we made it and once we got out of the car - everyone was pretty much happy. We enjoyed a quick hike to an ampitheater where the children (and adults) performed for a happy audience.

The folowing photographs were all taken within our first hour at camp...

Here's Aunt Steph and Grandma - posing for the camera. Cousin Megan, the leader of the pack... Lexi was happy to ride on Kristen's back... Kristen, Lexi and Lauren performing "I'm a Little Teapot" (Or something like that?)
Cousin Ellie
LaLa

No photos exist of the rest of the afternoon's activities, I was too busy keeping Isaac from eating pinecones, setting up the tent, unpacking the car, picking Isaac up out of the dirt, hauling dinner to the table, and digging rocks out of Isaac's mouth to get much camera time in.

And then it was dinnertime. I was so busy trying to get Isaac to prefer food over rocks, that Abby found a quieter place to enjoy her meal.

Finally, it was bedtime. We were all in much need of a good night's sleep after all of the days activities and Abby and Isaac were thrilled to get into the tent.

Unfortunately, Isaac didn't get the idea that we were supposed to SLEEP in the tent. He spent about an hour crawling and squealing around our new home. When I finally put him down in his pack-and-play - he immediately stood up and started bounding with delight. Needless to say, it was a long, long, LONG night. Isaac was up at least once every half hour, wanting to be snuggled in just the right way. I must admit, I was pretty happy to see the sunrise in the morning. After only a few hours of very interrupted sleep, my dad offered to take Isaac on a 4 wheeler ride while I cleaned up camp and prepared for home. Of course, Isaac fell right to sleep...
Why couldn't he sleep like that in the tent?

As I packed up the amazinly huge pile of junk we needed for a simple overnight camping trip, filthy, exhausted and admitedly a bit grumpy, I humbly came to the realization that camping is not quite the same when you have two little ones.

Lesson learned: Daddies are pretty handy to have around on camping trips.

No diet coke was consumed...