Camping Trip (From Hell)

Ok so when the sun was up, it wasn't hell. It was actually pretty fun. We took the kids up to Door County to go camping on Sunday night and planned to stay through Tuesday. Simon was in heaven finding dead snakes, "deadly" caterpillars, playing with sticks, swimming, kayaking, biking, roasting marshmallows and cheese curds, eating junk food, having fun with Grandma and Grandpa and generally just doing what you do when you camp.

Cecilia was being an 18 month old at a campsite, falling on everything, running into the road, finding herself in the stroller a lot, etc. She had fun, though, and behaved better than expected actually. Like I said, when the sun was up it was pretty fun - with both of them.

Then the sun went down.

Now Cecilia has always been an excellent sleeper so I probably shouldn't complain when we have a rough night, but this was beyond a rough night. So rough that we refused to endure another one and went home early.

For whatever reason the night before we left she talked to herself until 10pm. Weird for her, but not that big of a deal except that it meant she'd be a bit sleep deprived the next day. So 7:30pm rolls around the following evening and she's ready for bed so I put her in the pack and play in the tent and let her cry it out for awhile. Eventually she calmed down and then started calmly yelling out the side window for everyone..."MAMA?! DADDY?! BAPA?! UM UM UM UM BAPA?!" (She's developed the "um" stutter already thanks to Simon.)

By this point it was about 8:15 so we decided to try going for a drive with her to see if that would shut her up. It took her a solid 30 minutes to close her eyes so we drove another 30 to make sure she was good and asleep before taking her out. She hears the zipper to the tent and she's up. She could not stop moving. She was rolling around, kicking us, sticking her diaper in our faces, flapping her legs around, etc. She could NOT. STOP. MOVING. Just couldn't. And every time we'd try putting her in her pack and play again she would cry, which we didn't want to let her do for too long since we were in a campground. At one point she starts going through all the ways to say Daddy while climbing all over him, "Dada! Dadeee! Da! Dadeee!" I believe this is when my delirious laughing fit occurred.

I forgot to mention that it was STIFLING hot in the tent. Like suffocating, can't breathe kind of hot. We had all the windows open but the cross breeze was missing us somehow. Plus, it was too small for 2 adults, 2 kids and a pack and play. It all just added to the misery.

Then around midnight Bryan took her back in the car again to see if it would work a second time. After all, it is midnight and she HAS to be exhausted, right?!?!! This can't go on forever, RIGHT?!?! So he took her out and again she stayed awake for almost a half hour before giving in. And again, when she heard the zipper she woke back up. After another hour of much of the same as before, we tried the pack and play (AGAIN) and after who knows how long of walking around it she finally collapsed. I think this was around 2am or so. I don't even remember how she wound up back by us by morning come to think of it. I think she started crying again at some point so we took her out.

And here she is finally snoozing away in the morning...

So that was fun. I know that was quite a detailed account, but it was quite a night. One that I'm not probably explaining that well, but I tried. Ha. I should mention that Simon was awesome throughout all of this. He fell asleep and stayed asleep through all the nonsense. Phew.

I forgot my camera sadly, so I have very few pictures from our little adventure, but I did whip out my iPhone when the kayaking adventure commenced!

They had a ton of fun and I'm glad they got to do it! All around it was a fun little trip, but not one that I want to repeat anytime soon. I have no idea how we will approach the sleep situation when we go again! What can I say, the girl loves her crib. It's 8:45am and she is still sound asleep. Thank God :)