Primitive.
Out in the boonies.
Off the grid.
Adventerous.
Fun!
All thing I would use to describe our 4th of July weekend that we spent camping with two other Hines families. It has been awhile since we have gone camping and this was like diving right into the deep end of it! Ha! Thankfully all of the kids did excellent and I really can’t complain about the entire experience, either.
Theo’s brother and sister in law purchased raw land that is about 2 hours away from us. They may eventually develop it into their home, but for now it is just a plot of acreage with woods, farm fields and a lovely creek running through it. We pulled up with our vehicles, trampled down the long grass, set up some tents, dug a ditch and put up three walls for a potty spot, started a fire and that was our little spot! No electric, no water, no bathroom.
We arrived Friday afternoon and the kids were immediately ready to jump in the water. The creek was a bit high from the rains the day before, but it went down significantly over the weekend. The kids loved the rocky creek bed and literally spent the entire weekend in the water. In fact, when it was time to go, we were practically dragging them out of the water! The adults spent most of the time sitting in our camping chairs watching the kids swim, getting food prepared and we even got some nice and peaceful reading and alone time! The men took the four wheelers and dirt bikes and also got some shooting/target practice in.
Since we had 3 families there, we each brought our own family tent and our own food for meals. We cooked over the fire and sat in camp chairs or a folding table to eat. Of course, we always had amores after dinner!
We washed our dishes in the creek…
We eventually went to bed when it was finally dark (around 10pm). Ezra’s little body of course decided to have an asthma episode while we were out there in the middle of nowhere. Thankfully, we had his nebulizer, and even though we didn’t have electricity to plug it in, we did have the van and were able to run his breathing treatments through the van. I’m thankful for this modern medicine, but man, it was a HORRIBLE first night. I don’t think I got more than a few hours of sleep and I know that Ezra and Theo go even less! Of course, there is also the pressure of trying to keep your kid quiet for the other families sleeping in tents 5 feet away, but it’s just kind of hard to keep a crying, coughing asthmatic 2 year old quiet. HA!
Saturday was spent doing more of the same…creeking, sitting and watching the kids be creative and have fun, catching up with my sisters-in-law, cooking food over the open fire, taking out the dirt bikes. It was SO NICE to have almost nothing to do and just be bored for a day. We had no cell service and none of those typical household demands, so even though it wasn’t exactly restful, it was so relaxing.
Theo riding the mini dirt bike through the water (he was crossing the stream) had us all cracking up
Uncle Ethan took ALL the kids (and Uncle Theo and Aunt Sarah) for a ride! If you are counting, there are 11 children on this vehicle, and Kryin was riding his dirt bike – 12 cousins! 11 of them under the age of 10 š
Our dinner table was graced with some wildflowers. And the sky was gorgeous. The weather was PERFECT!
After dinner #2, we had some more amores and waited for it to get slightly dark. Then we broke out the sparklers!
Saturday night we slept so much better but woke up Sunday morning ready to see our showers and upscale indoor bathrooms and fresh, clean clothing. Oh, maybe that was just me. We headed home, spent the afternoon resting and running lots of loads of laundry, did a thorough tick check and then went out to the see our town fireworks! Phew…it was quite the weekend!
We had so much fun…I think this will become an annual tradition!
What did you do for the 4th of July? Do you like to go camping? Please define “camping”- there is such a wide range of the definition of camping š š