This weekend we fulfilled one of my 30 before 30 goals and took the girls for their first ever camping trip. Friday night we loaded up the car with a borrowed tent and piles of blankets, and headed up to a campground buried in frost and fog. We have been going to the Unitarian church since last spring (more on that at some point); when we heard about their annual camping trip, we knew it would be the best way to introduce our family to camping: surrounded by other people and in a place that served food (which gave us one less thing to think about on our first foray into the wilderness). We signed up for the camping trip a month ago and were super excited for the trip, despite Friday’s frosty weather — although I’ll admit I did start to get a little nervous when I saw actual snow on the trees and ground.
Friday night the temperature hovered just above freezing, but we braved the cold and it was so worth it to wake up snug under a pile of blankets between both my girls. Saturday warmed up quickly — back into the upper 70’s — and we had a blast doing both group activities with our church friends and wandering off into the woods on our own. We explored quiet paths, delightfully nibbled wild raspberries, and taught Nora how to cast a fishing pole while Zara slept contentedly buckled to my chest.
We were going to stay Saturday night, too, but life decided to keep us on our toes. Zara got sick around dinner time and was going through diapers and diaper covers at a rate I could not have planned on, so we ended up packing up Saturday evening and heading home to some amenities that are a little more friendly to a baby with an upset tummy. We were all disappointed to miss our second night of camping, but we had to do what was best for our littlest girl, and the time we did have was the perfect day and a perfect introduction to life in the woods, which was just what we needed to get us talking seriously about investing in our own camping gear and making camping part of our regular Colorado summer routine. Summer hasn’t completely ended in Colorado and I’m already impatient for it to begin again just so we can go camping again.