Mommy Camping Trip

July 6-7:  So I'm in a weekly bible study (well more of a book study to be accurate).  These are my girls... the ones I do life with.  Are group has changed a bit over time but I just completed 2 full years of meeting with these lovely ladies.  We have in part bonded because most of us have big families (6 of us have 4 or 5 kids!)  Currently they are 10 of us with a grand total of 34 kiddos.  These girls get me through the day to day challenges of being a mom and I am so grateful to have them.  One thing I love about these girls is they know how to have fun and they welcome a challenge--especially a crazy one that involves lots of kids (I think that kinda goes hand in hand with having a big family!)

This past summer we got the crazy idea to take our kids tent camping.  We know that weekends are hard because everyone is so busy so we thought, "Who needs men for this trip??? We can do it during the week while our guys are working... We've totally got this!"  We planned and executed our camping trip and we were not phased by the ginormous rain storm that blew through (I'm taking ALL NIGHT LONG thunder/lightning/POURING rain!)

We planned out a few meals and split up the shopping list amongst ourselves.  We all met up at a gas station Monday morning at 9 and hit the road.  We headed to Weko Beach Campground in Michigan (right next to Warren Dunes).  We blew into the camp ground and claimed our 3 spaces (2 tents allowed per space).  We set up tents--some of us were novice campers and some seasoned vets.  I being on the novice side decided to practice setting up and tearing down my tent at home the day before.  Next we grabbed some snacks and drinks and hiked from our camp sight to the beach.  We had a GORGEOUS, sunny day with perfect temps in the 80's.  We kept watching the forecast of the approaching storms but didn't let it ruin our fun.

Our 23 kids, Ages 3-16

The Mamas

Our Tent Village

 

We decided to do an early dinner (at 4:00) so we could be the project rain (and because our kids devoured the snacks and were hungry!  We roasted hot dogs and brats and had chips, fruit, and veggies.  We thought it would be fun to let the kids make their own roasting sticks so we agreed not to bring any... Well, one mom brought some and we all ended up sharing those!

 

The rain kept getting pushed back (thankfully!) so after dinner we did some hiking/exploring around our camp ground.  The kids found a rope swing over a little creek so that provided a good amount of entertainment!  

 

 

We decided to head back to the beach for an evening swim while we still had daylight.  It was a bit cooler but the kids played for a few more hours.  It was the most relaxing trip to the beach I've ever had (good decision to leave Carver at home!) 

Reagan's mom joined our camping trip even though she is not in our bible study group--Macey and Reagan just met this day but became fast friends!

 

 

Around 8:00 we packed up and headed back to camp to shower and make s'mores.  We walked 1/4 mile to the community showers (which were nice and hot!) and bathed our cuties as best we could.  Once they were all in pj's we pigged out on s'mores.  The rain which was originally supposed to start around 5 held off until almost 2 in the morning.  We were able to enjoy a perfect day and stay completely dry until we were all snuggles in our sleeping bags.  Thankfully most of the kids were asleep before the storm hit and mine all slept straight through.  I will admit that I was pretty nervous for a good chunk of time.  I kept thinking "How in the world am I supposed to get all my kids to the car if I need to?!?" and "Is my tent going to blow away?!?"

 

 

Telling Scary Stories

 

Thankfully by morning the storm had backed off to a steady rain.  We stayed (mostly) dry... just a little water around the edge of the tent which got soaked up by some big sleeping bags.  Oh--did I mention that my AMAZING hubby went out the morning of said trip and bought me an air mattress?  Life Saver!!!  I was not excited about sleeping on the ground.  We had packed donuts and juice for the kids and one of the girls made a coffee run.  We had planned to hit the beach again and had packed stuff for lunch but do to the unending rain most of us decided to call it quits.  A few families braved the beach for a short amount of time. 

We had one extra in our tent...she slept right through it all!

Packing up was ridiculous!  It kept right on raining.  I loaded the kids into the van in their pj's and started a movie.  I packed up everything I could from inside my tent and tried to make trips to the van with an umbrella.  When it came to the tent, there was no packing it up neatly into the bag--I tore that thing down, wadded it into the smallest ball I could manage (not very small) and stuffed it into the side door of our van.  Luckily I had stowed one of our passenger seats because Carver didn't go--that gave us much needed extra space!  Camping takes A LOT of stuff!! 

 

By the time we made it home we drove into Illinois to find blue skies and a clear windy day--perfect for spreading out a tent in your back yard to air dry.  The kids were tired and happy to chill all afternoon while I washed sleeping bags and swim stuff and cleaned out our disgusting van.

Our Crew!

We had the BEST time and proved once again that Moms Rule!  Our kids had so much fun... I absolutely adore how they can be thrown together at this young age even when they don't hang out a lot and have an absolute blast.  We already have our dates picked for next year... #annualmommyandmecampingtrip