Camping at Farragut

What do you get when you have twelve adults, eleven kids (ten of them under the age of six), one RV, two tent trailers, and four tents on two very hot summer days? A weekend getaway to Farragut State Park, of course, with our home group from church. (Here are just some of the kiddos...)

Let me just start by stating the obvious: camping with a fourteen month old is quite different than camping with a three month old. Last year Clara spent most of her day sleeping. When she wasn't sleeping, she was hanging out in her bouncer or snuggling in a lap. Here is what camping looked like last year. This year, the theme was dirt. Clara was all about grabbing it, trying to eat it, and basically attempting to roll around in it.

I know I've mentioned quite a bit just how different this summer is than last. But on our camping trip I had a constant reminder: sweet little Hollyn was born on May 3rd of this year, Clara's exact birth date! So every time I glanced at this darling little bundle, I remembered that Clara was that little just last year. Wow.

This year: (the only closer-up picture I captured of Miss Clarabelle over the weekend, oops)

(Sidenote: We almost didn't make it on this excursion because of a little bout with Roseola. Let's just say that last week was not the happiest week in the life of the Claranator. And it certainly wasn't happiest for me either. At all. But that is behind us, thankfully.)

What a wonderful weekend it ended up being! The crazy part was just how relaxing and laid back it was, despite the fact that there was a constant swarm of activity at all times. The kids played hard, but slept hard too. The adults even got about four hours of uninterrupted campfire game time. Pretty incredible, if you ask me.

The trip was wonderful. It really was. But not every moment was delightful, let me tell you. What was not entirely delightful? That's an easy question to answer. Saturday morning from 1:30am to 3:00am, precisely. Our little darling awoke around 1:30 and when Jonathan checked on her (and she saw him...a deadly mistake on his part), she lost it. I mean, went completely off the handle. Neither of us could calm her down. At all. In fact, after ten minutes of crying, the only thing that calmed her was the presence of the banana next to her bed. Somewhere mid-scream she paused, pointed to the banana, said "nana", and then screamed again. Desperate for anything, we gave her the option of eating it and she did. At least 2/3 of it, that is. And then continued crying. So we put her in the car (still screaming), and went on a drive. A long drive. She fell asleep. We almost did too. And then we returned to our campsite. Jono to recline his seat and spend the night in the car, while Clara slept in her car seat. Me to spend a few hours in the tent trailer.

What was wrong with Clara? Absolutely nothing. This same event has happened on a trip once before. If she wakes in a strange place and sees us at night, she just freaks out. But that time she didn't wake an entire campsite full of friends and strangers alike. Ugh.

On Saturday morning we decided that we can understand why some people might take a little break from camping when their kids are at the one year old stage. But we were not going to give up that soon. I'm sure there is a challenge when it comes to camping with kids at any age, really. We had a game plan for night two: do not check on her if she squirms, or even calls out. The result? Twelve hours of peaceful sleep for the Claranator and a very happy mom and dad.

These next few weeks will be the true test. We have a few adventures ahead and I have a feeling we will learn a lot about flexibility and patience in the coming days ;). And we'll definitely make sure to bring along a generous supply of bananas.