4th of july - take one: camping

Our 4th of July weekend began on Friday with our trip up to Iowa City for some burgers & beer. I think if we started every weekend like this, life would be absolutely perfect.

The next morning, we woke up early. Nic headed to work, and I laced up my shoes and headed out for a 12.45 mile run. I would have gone a little further, but had no clue how far I would actually run when I headed out the door. I just wanted to run, so I kept going and going. With 1.5 miles left to go to get home, I had to call the hubs to pick me up. I had spent all the fuel in my tank.

By 10AM we had the car packed and were on our way to Minnesota to camp at Lake Louise State Park Pine Lawn City Park. Since the state parks were closed, we had decided to either set up camp at Pine Lawn city park in Grand Meadow or in my aunt's backyard. We chose to rough it at Pine Lawn, with promises of hot showers at my aunt's house the next morning.

We should have just gone to my aunt's, but hindsight in 20/20.

My sister-in-law and her kids came down from the cities to camp with us for the night. It was their first time camping, and let me tell you - it was a camping trip that will not be forgotten!

Here is a photographic journey throughout Saturday and Sunday.


My niece is a monkey and was up crawling around our car whenever it was open.


Proud auntie.


Getting the fire ready so s'mores could be roasted.


Prepping the camp stove {from my childhood} for dinner.


This is how Nic must have felt on the inside towards said camp stove - after being used for at least 20 years, it might just be ready to be retired. That put a little kink in our meal plans, but we managed. Isn't that what camping is all about?

On Saturday night, we threw tin foil packets directly into the fire. Chicken, hamburger, portobello burger, and zucchini. Everything turned out fantastic.




A little vegan in the making! :) My niece and nephew love green peppers.




Relaxing by the fire.


Catching fireflies.






It was just too hard to pause for a second to show me all the fireflies he caught - there were just too many more to be had!


Despite being at a city park, it turned out to be a really nice location to camp, and cheap at that! $5 a night - can't beat that!


Keeping the fire going for a few more hours of relaxation.






Who doesn't love glow sticks while camping? We had to keep reminding him that he needed to wait until it was dark before we broke them out. Cheap entertainment.

So this shot was taken around 9PM, maybe? Marissa was trying to put the kids to bed, but was having issues with our "neighbors" whose music was super loud, like louder than necessary. She asked them politely to turn it down, and they did, but not without a few comments. It's the 4th of July we are going to listen to music and have fun, that is what camping is all about. Agreed, however you can also be respectful to your neighbors.

The rest of us headed to bed a few hours later and tossed and turned while our neighbors were celebrating the 4th a little bit louder with every beer consumed. At 2AM their kids were still running right by our tent playing flashlight tag, the music was turned back up, f-bombs were being dropped, and beers were being cracked open.

Nic was brave and headed over there just to see if they could turn the volume down a notch or two. A request that was met with a few less than respectful responses. Dude, it's the 4th of July - this is how it is: we are going to stay up until 5AM and we are going to drink and be loud. Duuuuude, that is what camping is all about. This is how it is dude, we are going to stay up until 5AM. Great, that's fine, we'll deal. We are at a city park with no "quiet times" established. Nic retreats and sits by the fire.

F-bomb. F-bomb. F-bomb. F-bomb. F-bomb. F-bomb. F-bomb. F-bomb. F-bomb. F-bomb. F-bomb. F-bomb.

I peak my head out of the tent's window - "Could you at least clean up the language?"


Who knew those words could start a fight? Well, I guess I should have taken into account the 4,380,957 drained beer cans before I opened my mouth.

::ohmygod the drunk lady is walking towards our tent::


Me: Hold up, I'll come out of the tent.


Drunk lady: yeah! You get out of that tent, get out here!


Me: Well give me a second, I have to unzip the tent door. ::giggle, seriously, I am going to confront a super drunk lady, this should be fun::


We meet halfway between sites. Neutral territory.


Me: I understand you guys want to stay up all night and that is totally fine, but can you at least clean up the language? I have a 4 year old in the tent and I really don't want him to learn those words.


Drunk lady: Here is how it is, we are going to stay up until 5AM and drink and blah blah blah blah. I have 4 kids too and blah blah blah blah


Me thinking to myself: what a great role model you are being to your 4 kids.


Drunk lady takes a huge step towards me indicating that she is ready to brawl.

I take a huge step back.


Drunk lady: Why are you stepping back?


Me: There is no need to be that close to talk.


Drunk lady: blah blah blah blah 5AM blah blah blah.


Me: Awesome, have a great night - just keep the language clean.


I head back towards the tent.


Drunk lady + friends continue to talk about us as if we can not hear them through our tent walls. We giggle.


Drunk lady: What's that? A dog - let's get the beebee gun and shoot it.


Yeah, you do that lady, shoot my dog with a beebee gun. ohmygodyouaresoridiculouslydrunk.

10 minutes later: silence.

Me: Ha. I win!

Four {short} hours later, now 6:00AM, the niece is up and Maia is barking. Little is done on our part to keep Maia quiet.

We slept on and off a few more hours and finally got up around 8:00. Breakfast was cooked over an open flame (just call me Pioneer Woman).




Coffee, oatmeal and scrambled eggs.


We began packing up - no way were we even going to risk another night camping with our new best friends.





Before we all parted ways, Nic took the kids on a treasure hunt (geocaching) and headed to the river to do some fishing with the nephew.



Dear DNR Officer, please disregard the next photos, oh wait, you are not back at work are you?







While us adults were making some new best friends with our awesome neighbors, Maia and the niece were establishing their life-long friendship.






While Alexa likes to give Maia kisses right on the snout, Maia prefers to show affection by cleaning out your ears. Pretty sure the niece thought this was hilarious.









\
I die. How adorable!


Trying to give Maia a hug and a big old kiss right on the snout.






How perfect!



So, how was camping with 3 adults, 2 kids, and one dog? It was perfect and we can't wait to do it again. I think our tent mansion added to the experience. This was the tent Nic and I registered for when we got married. Back in those days, I was certain we would have had at least two kids by now, so would require a huge tent.

While choosing an EIGHT person tent might have been a little excessive - it worked very nicely in this situation!

Look - it was big enough to fit a pack 'n play!



We set some time aside on Sunday morning for a very special ceremony:









I am officially a geek. A very proud geek who runs marathons.





Yeah for camping!

Up next: Birthday Party!