Camping

There isn't really a good theme for this post other than "the random pictures we took while camping that don't fit into a good post" so here goes nothing.  As you know, two weeks ago we traveled through Canada and Ohio on a whirlwind trip to Niagara and a family reunion.  Well, if you know us, you'd be able to guess that instead of springing for hotels on this trip we camped the entire way.

Let me be the first to say that camping with a 2 year old is NOT the easiest thing.  Well, maybe I should say, traveling.  Camping is really no different than any other travel.  You drive a lot (kids don't usually love that part),  you do activities at weird times of the day (naps fall by the wayside and that makes kids grumpy) and you're all sleeping in the same space (meaning once they are miraculously asleep you give your husband an elbow to the ribs whenever he needs to get up and pee because he drank too many beers).

When we got to the family reunion though Abby was in cousin heaven.  There were tons of kids for her to hang out and play with.  She was by far the youngest (well, unless you count this cute little baby Cora) but I was so grateful to have some of the older cousins take charge and play with her.  Cousin Maddie even took her for a full afternoon so that Ryan, Mom, Dad and I could all go kayaking on the river.  It was amazing!!  I got 3 hours of "adult" time and even got to squeeze in some time to read a book.  I might have even got a quick nap in.  After nearly a full week of having Abby all day, all the time, I was SO HAPPY to get a break.  So, Maddie....I know I've said it already but THANK YOU AGAIN!  You're amazing.  Summer nanny job??!?!?!

Our campsite in Canada was amazing.  Believe it or not, after booking plenty of camp sites in my life I've gotten really good at reading those little ant farm like maps and picking out the prefect spot for us to camp.  At this site we were all the way at the end of the road and only had an neighbor on one side of us.  Mom and Dad were even able to set their tent up back in the trees where we could hardly see it.  We ended up being in the area of the campground where the seasonal campers stay so they were all super friendly and quite to camp near.

Other than a general lack of sleep and schedule, Abby did great camping.  She's a real trooper. "Skeego" bites and all, I think we've successfully started raising an outdoor kid.  Trust me, she still loves her Mickey Mouse time on the iPad.  You can't win them all I suppose.

The campground in Ohio, Mohican State Park, was just as beautiful as Canada, though not nearly as remote.  There were tons of touristy things to do within miles of the campground and we certainly took advantage of them when it came to activities like the Kayak trip and climbing this big fire tower.  From the pictures (and even from the ground) it didn't look that scary.  But let me tell you, about three flights up and it started to freak us out.  We'd originally set out with Abby in tow but by the time that we reached the third or fourth flight Mom started to chicken out and I was secretly thinking I would too.  Ryan forced me to go to the top and I'm glad I did, but I was even happier to have Mom and Abby back on solid ground.  

I've got another full post coming on the reunion itself and tons more photos to share so I apologize for this slightly random assortment of stories and photos.  More organized posts to come!!