First Camping Trip

After 4 months of planning, we finally packed up the truck and set out for a Rooney Adventure--Our First Camping Trip!! This was Scott's first camping trip EVER, so he got a chance to try being a "Suburban Dad in the Rough" for 2 nights :)

Some of my fondest memories of childhood were camping and I expected it to be no different for our kids. They really had a blast. For a kid, what's not to love about sleeping in a tent, swimming, S'mores, hot dogs and getting dirty running around with their friends?! We went with another family from our neighborhood. Their oldest kid is in Brookey's class at school. The also have a 4 year old and a 1 year old. So we had 5 kids 5 & under running around! Not everything was easy...hmmm....where do I start...

1) Reading the directions wrong, then having our GPS lead us to a "Bridge Out" sign, making a 2 hour drive a 4 hour trip all the while having a kid in the backseat who can hold his pee for all of 7 minutes...just enough time to pull over and pop the potty seat behind a tree a some vacant lot.

2) 4 sleeping bags, one gynormous tent, 2 air mattresses, 4 pillows, 1 potty, 2 ice chests, 4 chairs, 3 bags of clothes, 1 box of supplies, 3 flashlights, 1 lantern, 1 pop up sun shade, 4 towels...2 bottles of wine :)

3) 90 degrees in the afternoon...perfect for swimming but it felt icky coming back to camp in the heat. Luckily it cooled down to perfection as soon as the sun went behind the trees around 7pm.

4) Band-Aids: The campsite was a little rocky and Buddy feels the need to RUN EVERYWHERE. We must have gone through 15 Bandaids and a tube of Neosporin.

5) Buddy eating 2 S'mores with chocolate (AKA: caffeine) and being wired until midnight on Friday!! Hilarious. Note to self: NO CHOCOLATE within 5 hours of bedtime!!!

And of course there were just the regular hassles of taking kids places....someone has to pee, someone isn't sharing, someone wants to go swimming, someone doesn't, someone doesn't like hot dogs, someone needs another cup of water, someone spilled their juice, someone fell and needs a Bandaid, someone needs a nap...on and on. But honestly, overall, I would consider our first camping trip a GREAT success!!! I would do it all again next weekend!!! I know all the kids on the trip had a great time since they were all asking when we were going to go again. And we did actually get some "adult time"after the kids went to bed (Buddy joined us on Friday!!), and it was nice to catch up with friends.

All in all a great time. I am already looking for a next great place to go. The problem is there are about 5,000 AWESOME places within 3 hours from us.....where to go next??!!

They were amazingly upbeat on the 4 hour nightmare trip!!!!


First night roasting marshmallows!!!!
S'mores!!!!


Buddy ate S'mores and was up until midnight wired on chocolate!!!

Brookey and Adam :)

She spent hours on the "beach" collecting rocks and shells

He's the Number One boat rider! "Blue boat again, please?" He's a boater!!!

What's not to love about a nap on the beach?!

The Rooneys brave the Great Outdoors!

Chillin at camp

Camping doesn't stop potty training! The potty was our most-used item!! I wasn't going to submit him to camp toilets just yet :) (He's definitely going to kill me for this pic someday!)

He's a man of leisure!!!

Like a good Boy Scout, he leaves camp cleaner than he left it :) Helping me haul out the trash