CAMPING -- kind-of FAIL

When I asked Joel what I should title this post he said "Camping Fail". I don't think it was a complete fail because we had a good time too.

Ava did so well camping the last time we went this summer that we were really looking forward to taking her to Farragut State Park this week. She has been fighting a cold for several days now, so we probably should have known not to attempt camping overnight, but we did anyway. We arrived on Tuesday and had great weather. Joel and Ava set up the tent.

Then we attempted to feed Ava lunch, but she was not interested at all. She just wanted to play in the dirt and play on the swing set that they have in the middle of the camp ground.


We then took a bike ride down to the river (they have this cute little kids swimming area) and played in the water. Ava loved this part of camping too.

Then we headed back to our campsite to make a fire and cook dinner. Dinner was great! Food cooked over a camp fire always tastes ten times better than anywhere else.

After dinner we headed to the swing set for a few more minutes of playtime before bed. This last family picture (right before bed) was the end of the good camping trip. It kind-of turned down hill from there. It was a pretty cold night, and Ava woke up several times not very happy. Then in the morning she woke up early - not happy again - and was so noisy that Joel decided to put her in the car and let her cry in there (hoping to allow some campers a few more hours of sleep). He finally gave in and turned on the DVD player in the car so that she could watch Elmo's World. We decided that we were not going to camp in the car with the DVD player on, so we packed up camp and headed home. It probably was a good decision, because it poured for most of the day, and Ava was really not feeling well.

But even with the rough night and morning, we had fun for several hours the first day and enjoy the time we spent just as a family.

Maybe we will try camping again next year when Ava is older and feeling better.