Camping trip: boom and bust

A much-awaited overnight family camping trip finally happened! We were trying to leave by 10am Friday morning, but after finding our cooler MIA (did we loan it out?! throw it out?! where is it?!) and being rusty at this whole camping thing, we left about 3 hours late. Nonetheless, we made it there with plenty of day left to enjoy. First order of business was to put up the tent and make lunch! Cade did really well during all of it. He spent most of his time either shuffling between mom & dad or picking stuff up off the ground and bringing it to us to see. Lunch was standard 'hearty' camp fare: jalapeno venison sausage, smoked sausage, burgers, potato salad, cole slaw etc. Cade particulary liked the sausages and didn't want much to do with anything else (including the kidney beans I'd brought just for him.)

From lunch to the lake. It was GREAT! The water was warmish, and we were sweltering. Cade didn't take long to adjust, and had a fantastic time playing 'race to the aqua sock'. We took one of his aqua socks off, and he'd throw it. Then he (propelled by mommy) would race daddy to the sock. This went on for a good half an hour, with Cade belly laughing most of the time. He was also fascinated with the boats and the 'baby boats', which I finally convinced him were jet skis. He'd say "Run, baby boat!", as we watched a jet ski following a water skiing boat.

From there it was 3 hours of fishing. And can you believe Cade was patient the whole time?! He even helped daddy reel in the line a few times. But when a fish actually appeared, he really didn't want to get any too close. I think I actually heard him say 'sorry' to the fish.

Back at camp, Cade was most definitely tired. He wanted to stay up for dinner, but was just too done. I took him to the tent, and we laid down for a while. After he'd finally asked to go into his pack-n-play, he heard daddy taking the food off the grill and 'Need eat! need eat!' was all he could say. We trapsed over, he had a few bites of meat, then wanted to go back to bed. T.J. & I were then able to enjoy a few hours alone looking at the stars and chatting.

When we entered the tent to climb into bed, Cade awoke. He was somewhat crying, and I asked him what was wrong. He said 'scared'. As I was consoling him, he proceeded to vomit...all over his sleeping mat in the pack-n-play. Blech! Cleaned all that up, he was out in an instant, and T.J. & I drifted off to sleep. For about, oh, 40 minutes. Then round two. This was the mother-load. Fortunately, my mom-reflexes kicked in and after the first wretch I was able to get a tshirt under his mouth to 'catch' rather than clean-up. Repeat this two more times. Seriously. Then throw in one more awakening just for grins - screaming loudly b/c he's afraid. To cap it all off, he decides at 6:45am that he's done sleeping for the night. T.J. & I have had probably 4 hours sleep total at this point. Praise God for a serving husband, because he got Cade up and took him fishing and let me sleep 3 more hours. I think T.J.'s still recuperating.

My hypothesis is that the combination of rich foods, lots of juice (I was trying to motivate him to stay hydrated) and the heat was just too much for him to bear. We'll definitely do this again, but restrict his diet to more 'normal' fare. We've posted a video on You Tube if you'd like to witness some of our fun.

4th of July - boom and bust

Last year's 4th was a complete bust, with us purchasing a bunch of fireworks and about three into them having Cade freak out in terror never to be dragged outside again. We were intent on having a different result this year.

We went to fireworks at a community nearby on the 3rd. Lots of people and kids, and this was held at a golf course where the kids could run and run and run, collect golf balls, and generally work out a lot of energy. Cade had fabulous fun with the other kids in our group and couldn't wait for 'fewwyworks'. The fireworks show was really good, and Cade made a few happy, excited exclamations, went between daddy & mommy's laps, and only twice had to close his eyes. He didn't freak out though, and he could talk about nothing else that night and the next day.

So the next day, the 4th, we're super confident. We go over to a friend's house for dinner with them and their FOUR kids, who are all considerably older than Cade. Then there's the oldest kid of the bunch, my husband. At the point that we're about to shoot the purchased fireworks off in the street, it's also the point of Cade's bedtime. No pack and play. Hadn't thought about it b/c the night before he was fine. Worse yet, NO BLANKIE! [dun dun DUN!!!!] Mom rushes home for the blankie, and upon return finds that Cade is no where to be found. Enter the house to a crying Cade. OK, here's blankie, all is good, right? Not so much. "Let's go outside and watch fireworks, Cade.", says mom. Envision a leech clinging to its prey...every surface area of the leeches body is in contact with its host. Yah, that was Cade on me. I've never had him cling to me that tightly. He was terrified. After a few attempts of getting him to go to sleep on the couch while I lay down with him (yah, try that in a house with 4 excited kids), I gave up and took him home.

Cest la vie. Better luck next year.