Camping in Florence

This was our first camping trip with Captain Adorable. And I think it was our first extended camping trip. I actually liked staying for three nights because it didn't feel like we were setting up the tent only to take it down the next day. We have a big old 9 person tent.
There was a big wooded area right behind our camp site. Sweetie liked playing with a boy from the neighboring camp site. The sites were very close together which was good for us since we had a big group. If it was just our family I don't know if I would like how close we were to everyone.
I had fun taking some camp fire shots. We had lots of s'mores (I gained back 2 pounds from all the camp food), but these are called doughboys. The stick is a long dowel with a cylinder block on the end. You take a biscuit from one of those cans and form it over the end. Then you bake it over the fire (takes more patience than marshmallows) and then you pop it off the end, fill it with chocolate pudding and whipped cream and enjoy! They were tasty!Coals.

I didn't let Captain Adorable crawl on the ground very much because it was SO dirty. He got to crawl in the tent, but he spent most of his time in the little high chair, in the stroller or in the backpack.

He lost his hat in this picture.Captain Adorable LOVED being outside!

Sweetie spent a lot of time with me while Ballerina ran off with a big pack of kids. The first couple of days there weren't any kids Sweetie's age and she felt pretty left out because I wouldn't let her roam the woods with the older kids. I felt sooo bad when I had to carry her away as she cried and said, "I want to 'splore!" (explore) I just didn't feel good about leaving her in the care of kids who were 9 or younger. She likes to follow, but she also is prone to wander.

The last couple of days there were 3 families with kids close to Sweetie's age and she loved tagging along with them. One was a boy who she referred to as, "My little boy." Another was a girl who is slightly younger than her and whose mom brought coloring books (which we forgot). Sweetie parked herself at their picnic table and colored for at least an hour. Then she begged to go back the next day "Pweeeeze, pweeeze can I go co-der my co-dering books?" She also ran around with the girl and had fun playing with her. We are going to have play dates with her now.I'm not sure why Sweetie was making these faces. I think she was singing or something.Captain Adorable is all done with his high chair.We hung out in the tent. Captain Adorable didn't sleep very well, waking about 3 times a night. Sweetie woke a couple of times as well. She got a really good nap the day after the beach while Handsome Husband took Ballerina out for another spin on the ATVs. At least our kids went to bed early-ish. They were all begging for bed right around 8pm every night, even though their friends still played for a couple of hours. Funny thing: the morning after the beach Sweetie woke up, came over to me and told me that the beach was in her ears. Sure enough, her ears were covered with sand!Here's the sweet little Babydoll again:I didn't see much of Ballerina because she was always off with friends. I kept telling her to stay with a buddy and to tell me where she was going. She would never be where she told me because she'd run wherever the friends were. I'm glad she wasn't kidnapped. I'd say that was the main downside to camping with friends: keeping tabs on Ballerina. The day after the beach, Handsome Husband wanted to give the kids a break from their friends, so we headed to the little town. We ate at Mo's. YUM!
Captain Adorable enjoyed their signature clam chowder.

Handsome Husband took this.

We got to watch boats go by as we ate.
This was pretty much the only way that Captain Adorable would nap while we were camping.
Sweetie helped me with cooking while Ballerina was off running with friends. I borrowed a friend's dutch oven and tried cooking with it for the first time. I made taco soup the first night (which was too spicy for the kids). The second night we had hot dogs on the beach and the third night I made meatball subs. I tried making peach cobbler for dessert that night, but I tried using the coals from dinner. It didn't work out so well. I ended up letting it sit in the pot that night and cooked it in the morning with fresh coals and we had a warm breakfast. These pictures are from the night I made the meatball subs. Our friends invited us over to share their steak, potatoes and corn on the cob so we brought our subs to share as well. Some people know how to cook while camping!!
Ballerina wouldn't touch the meatball subs. She was all about the steak and the corn on the cob. She LOVES corn on the cob!
Some of our friends brought their movie projector and put on The Incredibles for the kids one night. I didn't really think that was necessary since they get enough TV at home, but whatever. They also had a dessert potluck, too bad my cobbler didn't turn out that night. It was dark.

The last morning Sweetie came over and told me that this is what her bad dream looked like:

I loved the family time in the morning, just hanging out in the tent together.
So when we went into town Ballerina spent her allowance on this bottle of sea shells. She was very excited about them.
We bought Sweetie one as well, but she broke the bottle that night, so the shells ended up in a plastic bag.

Don't you love how Captain Adorable's pants are coming down?

We were surrounded by very tall trees.
It was a nice camp ground with lots of amenities and lots of friends. We look forward to going again next year!