St. Croix State Park

So we knew this was a bad idea before we set out on our 1st family camping adventure, but we really didn't want to miss out on the (could it be the start of a tradition?) 1st Cousin's Camping Trip. We only signed on for one night, but the rest of the crew was there for 3 nights. And we were right. Camping with a 16 month old is hard. Although at least we weren't there the night before because everyone had to go to the bathrooms for a couple hours because of severe weather. Now that would have been interesting!

We crammed into the rental car - good thing Garet was bringing my parent's huge tent (so the pack-n-play would fit) down with him because we wouldn't have been able to fit it and headed out to St. Croix State Park. We got there at dark Friday night and Gabe set up the tent while I stayed in the car with the kids. We headed to bed soon after. Campbell was excited to sleep in a tent with her new sleeping bag. Blake was up and yelling around 5 am, so Gabe took him for a walk so the rest of the camp ground could sleep. Campbell, cousin S & I joined him a few hours later. We couldn't get Blake to nap in the tent, so we went to town for a coffee run so that Blake could sleep in the car and get his much needed morning nap before we met everyone at the beach. The kids had a blast playing with their cousins. We tried to get Blake to nap in the stroller to no avail. He was cranky and falling all over the place because he was so tired so we got packed up and headed to the comforts of home.

After it's all said and done I am glad we did it. We have all this camping stuff we haven't used for years, so it was nice to get some use out of it. Campbell did great, but it will be a lot easier in a couple years when Blake is older. Memories were made, that's for sure!

Early morning walk with cousin S.

What me? Waking up the camp ground at 5 am?

Kids crashed hard on the way home. I think they fell asleep before we left the park. We were packed in very tight in the rental car.