When I was younger, we camped all the time, but of course when I was younger, I didn't realize the work it took to pull it altogether because my parents made it look effortless. We do a camping trip about once a year with my parents and sister's family, usually just a weekend. This time around, Amanda set-up the menu and list of food items each family needed to bring, which was nice, but we still had way too much food!
I was able to get all 4 of our clothes into one bag, mainly because I didn't have to bring warm weather and cold weather stuff. However, it did get a little cool at night and Bobby and I only had 2 sheets to cover up with, so we were a little chilly. I packed up and shopped entirely by myself for the trip, but Bobby did set-up and tear down the tent mostly by himself.
My parents had quite the adventure getting down to the park because the pop-up camper broke in Martinsville, IN and they had to leave it on the side of the road to get a part to fix it, so that added over 2 hours to their trip. Once they finally made it down, we were able to help get it set-up quickly in the dark. Since my mom was to bring all the eating utensils, we all had to eat with baby/toddler forks/spoons...lol! Natalie was sure to point out that those were her forks!
In addition to the silverware, my mom also had the pack-n-play for Aubrey to sleep in and Natalie was going to sleep in the camper, so we attempted to get both girls to lay down on the air mattress in our tent, which didn't work at all. Natalie finally laid down in the tent, but I had to walk Aubrey around in the stroller for her to go to sleep. I got lost walking around, but eventually found my way back. My quick walk to get her asleep turned out to be a long walk, but at least I got some exercise I guess and she did go to sleep!
Once my parent's arrived, we put the girls in the tent, but all they did was laugh and play together, which was cute to listen to, but they really needed to sleep. Finally we separated them and Natalie slept in the camper while Aubrey slept in the tent. I don't think Natalie fell asleep before midnight any night, but she did sleep until 9a or after in the morning. Aubrey didn't sleep the greatest, which means Bobby and I didn't sleep the greatest either! Both girls slept really good last night: Aubrey slept from 8p-10a and Natalie slept from 5p-9p, 10p-9a. Think they were worn out?!
Last time we camped (over a year ago), when Natalie was right around 8 months, was much easier. Mainly because (in my opinion) Natalie was still in her 'baby' phase where she could sleep anytime, anywhere. Aubrey is past that 'baby' phase and has entered more of the toddler phase where she likes to be in her bed and very much sticks to a schedule for the most part. Hopefully, next year when the girls will roughly be 2 and 3 1/2, it will be easier. Plus, since Aubrey isn't walking yet, she wanted to be down moving around, but didn't want to be corralled in a pack-n-play either, so being held or closely monitored was her only option. Natalie loved that my parents picked up Ty (her 2nd cousin from Tennessee) to camp with us. They were buddies! It basically took an army to just bathe the girls...me carrying all the stuff with my sister and mom right behind me with the girls!
Luckily, everyone made it home without any problems or break-downs! Packing and unpacking for a weekend camping trip is such a crazy amount of work, but it was fun and we are looking forward to doing it again!
Spring Mill was a really nice park and I would definitely return. There all kinds of things to do: hiking, swimming pool, caves (only one was open because of white nose syndrome that is killing bats), playgrounds, hayride, nature center and Grissom museum (we didn't do either).
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