Miss Hadleigh Claire Goes Camping

Dave and I had been trying to decide what to do for Mem Day weekend. We went back and forth with lots of ideas and Dave settled on wanting to go camping. Not just park and camp, but hike away from the car and camp. At first I had several reasons why I did NOT want to do this. I am 19 weeks prego, how are we going to bring milk for HC, etc. He shot down all of my reasons why camping might not be the best idea and we began to gear up to go.

In prep to go I began to look into camping cribs that we could bring along for HC. My good bud Laurence had a suggestion of Phil and Ted's T2 Travel Cot. I looked online and it was perfect...the only problem was that we would have to order online and we didn't have enough time for it to get here. We resigned ourselves to just taking a few extra blankets and making a bed for HC out of the blankets.

Since Dave has Fridays off we drove up to Chattahoochee National Forest on Friday morning and settled on a spot near the Tallulah River head waters. It was so beautiful. We ended up camping within 1/4 mile of the car, but had to hike down an incline and then ford across the river (which was only calf deep) and then walk through poison ivy and stinging nettles to get to the perfect spot.

HC loved every minute of our time. Everything was new and different and exciting. She loved being in the tent and sitting outside on the tarp, playing with butane canisters and matches and baby wipes and citronella candles and bug spray. Her favorite thing was sitting in the river and splashing around, and fishing with Dada.

Our main drama came when it was time for bed. We brought two tents, and I was the idiot who volunteered to sleep in the tent with HC. What was I thinking??? She was so tired I just kept waiting for her to come and laydown beside me on her little bed, but she was WAY too interested in feeling every part of the tent, touching my wet socks, and exclaiming about everything. I finally had to hold her down while she sobbed for 45 minutes and finally fell asleep. Once she was asleep I had my own drama. I couldn't get comfortable and ended up tossing the entire night.

I was able to take a little extra snooze in the morning while Dave took care of HC and felt better and was ready to stay for another night. We took a hike in the morning up the river. Dave fished with HC, and I sat in the sun with my feet in the water...it was so peaceful. After lunch Dave started feeling puny and it looked like a storm was rolling in, so we decided to pack up a bit early and head home.

Overall it was a wonderful trip and I would definitely do it again soon. Next time I will bring a crib for HC and some extra bedding for me.