Tent Camping #2

We had our last tent camping attempt of the summer. This time we went to Cape Lookout State Park. Neither Nathan or I (or the boys) had ever been there so we were excited to check it out.

The campsite was fun. There was a dune so that we couldn’t see the ocean, but we were actually only a hundred or so yards from the ocean. We were lulled to sleep by the sound of the surf.

The trip got off to a rocky start. We arrived at our site and opened the van doors only to be immediately attacked by mosquitos! I get unusually bad reactions to mosquito bites. We’re talking baseball or larger sized swelling for each bite or cluster of bites. I had a hard time deciding whether I should protect myself or protect the three boys. Nathan got started on getting the tents set up while I got the boys changed into long pants, sweatshirts, and doused with mosquito repellent. Nathan had the tent set up, but not staked yet, and I asked him to hold Caleb for a bit so I could get myself mosquito proof. (or as much so as possible). Then I went to use the restroom before being responsible for the boys again. I was only gone a couple of minutes, but when I came back the sleeping tent was completely collapsed and the dining tent was blown away and upside down.

What happened?

Apparently a big gust of wind had come and wreaked havoc on our tents which were not yet staked. After another twenty minutes and some help from the neighbors we were all set up!

We went to the beach to explore. The boys had a lot of fun just running around and throwing sticks and rocks into the surf.

They also had fun under this cool tree.

While we were there we watched another family with kids of ages around 8 and 6 or so. They were having so much fun and I saw into our future a bit. I am cherishing these baby and toddler days no matter how hard it makes it to do things like camping, but the future looked like a lot of fun!

We headed back to our camp for some smore’s.

We even had a little station set up for Caleb to play while we enjoyed our treats.

Caleb is a good little camping baby.

Finally, we played games together by lantern light. I think we did two rounds of slap jack, a few rounds of left, right, center, and some dinosaur go fish. By the time we finished it was 10 or so, and Caleb was toast, and the older boys needed to head to bed as well. Everyone went down easy, and then Nathan and I got to chat by the fire and starlight.

The night was not too cold, and everyone slept through until 5:45 or so when we got up to cook a yummy breakfast, explore the campground, and play on the beach. It was another successful camping trip. Next year we’ll definitely do more than one night in a row!

For those wondering….despite the layers of clothing and mosquito repellent I had on, I ended up with about 23 mosquito bites, most of which caused painful swelling. Luckily now that we are a few days out most of the swelling is gone and just itching remains. I didn’t want to take any benadryl as I usually do because I am a nursing momma. The boys happily ended up with zero between the three of them.