Payton's First Camping Trip

Lake Shelbyville

Helping Daddy roast hot dogs

Snuggling in the tent with Mommy

Graham's poison ivy

Making S'mores

Look at my chocolate Mommy

Where do I start? First, let me tell you that Payton did an outstanding job on this new adventure. He slept GREAT and managed to keep himself entertained, even when we were stuck in the tent while it rained. As for the actual weekend, here is an overview...

Friday:

We left around 5pm to head down to Shelbyville, IL, which is about 3-3.5hrs away. On our way, we stopped at ISU for some of our favorite pizza at Tobins, which was delicious of course:) After we left ISU we continued South and somewhere missed a turn, which left us lost on crazy country roads in the dark. We knew we were somewhat close but we had a hard time locating street signs. So, as I am driving slow looking at signs a car comes up behind me. I pull over to let them by but it turns out to be a cop who puts his lights on and pulls behind me. I knew there was no way I had done anything wrong but you never know. Then my many lifetime movie nights had my mind racing thinking this was a cop impostor and he was going to kill us. Anyways, I roll down the window and he asks us if we are lost. We told him where we needed to go and instead of giving us directions he says to follow him and he'll just take us there. OK, so I should be beyond thankful at that moment but I continued to fear for our life and Graham was a bit concerned as well. For about 20 minutes we followed the speeding cop to our campground and yes, he took us there door-to-door service. I breathed a sigh of relief and thanked him over and over again. We got our tent set up and tried to get to sleep but Payton was so excited he couldn't sleep. He kept saying, "I love this tent, Mommy!" It was close to midnight before he finally fell asleep. Oh, I forgot to mention that the sites were a bit close together so our tent was about 10ft from the campfire and "play" area of the site next to us.

Saturday:

Payton woke up just as excited at about 6am, with the sun:) Graham made some yummy pancakes and bacon. We spent the day getting use to our surroundings. When Graham woke up he was complaining of his eye burning and just chalked it up to allergies until his face broke out into a rash and he realized he had poison ivy. He thinks he may have gotten it from the wood they site next to us was burning. We took a walk to see the lake, played at the playground, ate and slept. Payton had a hard time napping in the daylight with all the noise but as long as we pretended to go to sleep too he did OK. He napped for about 3hrs this day:) For dinner we roasted hot dogs and Payton loved helping! When it was time for bed, he had absolutely no problems going right to sleep, even with the drunk guys next to us playing bags 10ft from his head and yelling very loudly!

Sunday:

Payton didn't wake up til around 7:30 this morning. Yeah! We ate some french toast and played at the playground again. This was suppose to be the best weather day, 80 and sunny with a chance of t-storms at night but when we woke up it was very overcast and cool:( We had planned on heading out to hike and after naps going to the beach. We did make it to do a little half-mile hike before a freak storm came on. We had to get back to camp quick to put everything inside and close up the tent. The storm came right around lunchtime so we cooked some grilled cheese inside the tent and tried to get Payton to nap again but no such luck til the storm was over then he slept for a good couple of hours. The storm was really bad and totally came out of the blue. It dried up a little bit and we had enough time to play at the park again and cook out for dinner. We had chicken and veggies:) We cooked smores but Payton only wanted the chocolate! After Payton went to bed, Graham and I sat outside a bit longer until it started to storm again. We knew there was a threat of severe weather from the people at the campsite but that was an understatement. The tent was leaking and the ground shook from the thunder! Graham had a hard time sleeping because his face was really itching so Payton was really the only one who slept well. I can't believe he slept through the entire storm. Oh, almost forgot that we had to put out the site next to us' fire because they let it go when the went to sleep and it was so crazy wild that it was dropping and starting fires all around it! Nice huh?

Monday:

Woke up to rain again. Decided it was time to pack up and call it a weekend. We left the campground by 8am and headed home. Graham decided to go to the ER to get the poison ivy looked at since it was no all over his neck too:( Poor guy, he is miserable! I am still waiting for him to return.