A camping we will go (sort of)

Before the summer started we made a list (kind of) of things we wanted to do over the summer and one of those was to sleep in the tent with both girls.  Well school was about to start and we still hadn't done it so I told Greg we had to get the tent out and do it.  The girls were super excited-I however was a bit worried because it meant having Brailie sleep somewhere with out a crib to confine her and she has never done that.  We decided to watch Tangled until it was time to sleep.  Brailie wandered all over the tent, climbing over everyone until she finally just laid down and was out.  It actually was so much better than I thought it was going to be.  The moon was super bright which made it hard for me to sleep but otherwise we slept good (even through trains and dogs and chickens-which usually doesn't happen).  The girls were really excited to still see the moon when they woke up in the morning.  I think we will camp like this a few more times before we really try the real thing.  The girls think it is awesome.

Fishing and Camping 2 Year old style

Allie has been talking about wanting to go fishing for a while. Daddy taught her to sing the chorus to Fishing in the Dark months ago and somehow one day when talking she decided that she needed to go fishing. She also plays a fishing game in nursery and I think that has helped spark some interest as well. We wanted to try and squeeze one more fun activity into our summer and wanted to do a campout. I knew that it would be unrealistic to go anywhere far to try and camp and after a horrible ward campout/emergency room visit when I was pregnant with Brailie my feelings about camping in general are mixed so Greg and I had settled on just going to the state park in town and having a weenie roast and sleeping in the tent and then fishing off the dock in the morning. Well Greg went to Grand Junction that day and I canned pinto beans all day and by the evening we were tired and realized that even if we just went to the state park we would still have to pack (which is not that fun with kids). Instead we decided to pitch the tent in the backyard, cook hotdogs on the grill and go fishing that evening before bed. Greg had bought Allie a new Dora fishing pole which she called her paddle and she was super excited about going fishing and about sleeping in the tent. For fishing she wanted to go in a boat across the lake and then jump out and swim in the water and catch a pink fish (I think she go the fish part from nursery and everything else from watching Dora).

Here we are making our way to the dock. Allie thought this was a boat and kept wondering why it wasn't going any where. I think this picture is priceless.
Holding her pole while Daddy gets things set up.

Pausing for a picture. HOW CUTE!!!

Daddy's getting the hooks on.

Waiting very patiently.

Boy there is a lot of stuff to get ready before you can fish.

Showing me her pole

Reeling it in. Daddy tried to get her to let her hook sit in the water but she loved reeling it in. I told Greg before we went to just let her do her thing and not take it to seriously. He did amazing. She was disappointed we didn't catch a fish but I am actually glad we didn't. I would have been worried she would have been excited jumping up and down and fallen off the dock.

Here Allie is with the lantern on our bed waiting as we got ready to go in the tent. What was perfect about sleeping in our backyard was that I had Brailie sleep in her crib and just kept the monitor on and by my pillow all night and she slept wonderfully.

After I took her little pony tails out her hair looked so cute and curly.

What a sweety.

This is in the morning. She slept so good. She loved looking at the stars. She'd say, "oh look how beautiful the stars."

This is her, "what's that. I hear something" face.

It was a big truck going by. What a fun camping trip. Perfect for a two year old. She had just as much fun as she would have any place else. It was a great experience-minus all the packing and laundry. Fun to be together as a family.