Well, I must say that God is GOOD! He made camping pretty good for our family over all. The weather was PERFECT. I mean it was cooooool in the evenings which is right up my alley! The bugs were bearable as well…except for thr “hiking” ones.

The couple that supplied our HUGE tent, also supplied us with blow up mattresses, so we did not have to sleep on the actual ground.

OK, now onto the experience…LOL

I am by no means an out doorsie kind of girl. My idea of camping would be at a spa somewhere. ROFL. However, I went into this open minded and willing to experience it. So, I decided I wanted to hike walk til you want death to come. I had NO CLUE what hiking wishing your legs would fall off just so you could stop the process even was. I mean to me a hike is when you get a parking place too far from the entrance to where you are going. LOL! Reality Check…that is NOT hiking!

My hiking foul activity invented by some perky, fit chick with no children experience was quite an experience to say the least. OK, so the men went fishing sat on a boat and relaxed while holding sticks out in the water, while the girls went hiking a trip to nature hell with whining toddler in tow.

NOTE: We did NOT take a hiking path. We could not find it, so we meaning the lady with us who “knows” about hiking decided to just go wild and not worry about silly “paths.”

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

On the up side, we saw some interesting animals. Nothing to write home about, but interesting. The wild turkeys were shy and not very fat. Certainly not one that I would buy for Thanksgiving…ROFL! We also saw a snake, some birds, what appeared to be a chipmunk, but they do not live in Florida, so it must have been some sort of field mouse a.k.a. RAT!

That was all the up there was…the entire TWO AND A HALF HOURS of hiking not an activity for toddlers consisted of my little one whining, complaining, crying, and doing the hang my arms down and bend over as far as I can while stumbling and crying dance. She NEVER stopped whining. I felt sorry for the animals that had to hear her. ROFL. Seriously, the poor thing…she was MISERABLE so was her poor putting on a happy isn’t this fun even though we all know it is a nightmare face Mom. She would also SCREAM at the top of her lungs every time any type of bug came within a foot of her…

Can you get a picture yet?????

About 1 hour into the hike, we decide to take a break in an abandoned part of the park that we found in the middle of the woods with the hopes of quieting my sweet little darling. We sat on some benches…ROFL. I mean the MOMENT I sat down something bit me…ouch…then again…ouch…three times a charm for me, and I was like forget this, can we get back to camp???

We got lost.

We spent the next HOUR and a HALF working our way back to camp.

 All the while we had the pleasure of hearing the whining, occasional scream, and…

Mommy, are we almost to camp yet…(100+ times)

Yes, sweetie, we are almost there…(100+ times)

Mommy, will you carry me…(50+ times)

Sure….(twice)

Honey, Mommy cannot carry you again yet…(98+ times)

WAHHHHHHHHH…Mommy, my legs are gonna fall off… (100+ times)

No they aren’t honey…it’s OK, PLEASE stop complaining…(100+ times)

Mommy….(1,000,000,000+ times)

That was my hiking experience.

Aside from the hell um er hiking, the trip WAS nice. Really. ROFL.

However, I did not sleep very much at all. I mean, I am not a sleep out side kind of girl. I like beds. Beds are good. So are ceilings and walls. I am a HUGE fan of ceilings and walls.  I heard lots of chewing, weird grunts, and several unkown noises. All I could think about was DAYLIGHT please come and PLEASE GOD, do not let NOTHING touch our tent. I mean the animals I heard were RIGHT there!!!

Our favorite part???

S’MORES!

You have NOT LIVED until you have had a yummy, delicious, messy, oh so gooey S’MORE the destruction of any calories burned on your “hiking” trip.

We did have a GREAT time and the girls loved it. My oldest learned to ride a bike, my little one went on a boat ride for the first time. The girls saw a gopher turtle that was MUCH faster than any turtle I ever saw and we laughed a lot.

Unfortunately, though, there was another down side to the trip…two of the bites I got on our “break” are not getting better, and we are keeping an eye out. I have looked online and cannot find what it could be…THANK GOD they do not look like brown recluse bites….They are itchy though and kind of blotch looking. I am pretty certain it was a spider, because the first day you could see two fang marks…

OK, so overall, I will camp again…with some minor changes…

hike again…hmm…not feelin’ it.

Posted in: Blogging, Camping, FUN!, Family, Gab Fests, Life as a Mom, Life is Learning, Marriage, Me, My Stuff, Parenting, Raising a Teenager, Raising a Toddler, Ramblings, Things I Love, Things I can't Stand

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 at 8:42 pm and is filed under Blogging, Camping, FUN!, Family, Gab Fests, Life as a Mom, Life is Learning, Marriage, Me, My Stuff, Parenting, Raising a Teenager, Raising a Toddler, Ramblings, Things I Love, Things I can't Stand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.