Camping!

Adam's first camping trip with friends Bailey and Carissa
Rice Creek Campground
Rice Creek Chain of Lakes Park Reserve
August 10, 2007

Adam went on his first camping trip Friday night at the Rice Creek Campground which is only about 10 minutes from our house. We don't have a lot of experience with camping, but our friends Kelley and Bailey, along with Amy and Carissa talked us into trying it. Just a night with the moms and the older kids. The little ones stayed home with the daddies!

We started our evening by loading up in Kelley's van and picking up some food at Subway (no cooking over the fire this time).


We made it to our campsite and had a little picnic. Our campsite was #50 in the E Loop. The website doesn't have a picture of ours, but it does have a picture of the one next to it.



After supper we went for a walk to check out the campgrounds. We found the bathrooms right away (very important!) and a little stage. The kids had fun playing on the stage, singing and dancing for us.


Kids on stage 1
Kids on stage 2
Kids running around
Carissa and Bailey sing the ABC song
Adam singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star


Next we continued on our nature walk. The kids had fun "collecting" things. They found walking sticks, flowers, milkweed pods, old honeycombs, rocks and more!





When we got back to the campsite it was time to put up the tent. The kids had fun helping.






Adam even got to help hammer in the stakes!
Adam hammering 1
Adam hammering 2

When we were all done, the kids had fun playing in the tents.



After the tents were set up, we went for another walk to the bathrooms! This was our "night walk" and Adam's favorite part of the whole trip. He loves his flashlight and had a blast walking around in the dark.





When we got back from our night walk it was time for Smores! We didn't have a campfire (as it was too hot, plus the kids were a little scared of it anyway), so we roasted marshmallows over a burner with a propane tank. It worked out really great as the kids were able to do it sitting at the table. They had a lot of fun roasting marshmallows and having snacks!







After marshmallows the kids were really starting to act tired (it was 10:30 after all), so we made one last trek to the bathroom. This time in the van. After getting ready for bed, the kids laid down and Adam fell asleep right away. The moms got to visit for a little bit before heading in to lay down with the kids.

Our biggest concern was that there was the possibility of a storm coming through during the night. We decided that we wanted to experience sleeping outside though, so we packed up most of our stuff in the van (keeping only what was necessary in the tents) and planned that we could quick hop in the van if some storms came. We all had a hard time falling asleep, but Amy especially was unable to sleep well. At 2:30 she woke us up with news from the radio of a very severe storm headed our way. Damaging winds, a lot of lightening and heavy rain. We decided we should probably head home. So we woke the kids and put them in the van. It had started to sprinkle a little, but wasn't too bad, so we quickly took down the tents and loaded the van. The kids were amazing - a little bit dazed, but not upset at all. We then dropped everyone off at home, beating the storm by just a few minutes. Here is some video of the storm about 10 minutes after we got home. We all feel we made the right decision!

Storm from the front porch
Storm from the back deck

Here is the story from the news the next day: (WCCO) Minneapolis Thunderstorms brought some welcome rain to parts of Minnesota overnight, but for some areas is came too fast and the winds were too strong. An Xcel Energy spokesman, Tom Hoen, said that 107,000 customers are without electricity in the Twin Cities metro area. A spokesman says sustained winds of 50 miles an hour, with gusts up to 60 miles an hour, knocked down power lines. He says the majority of customers should have power back by mid afternoon, but it could be the end of the day tomorrow before power is restored in some outlying areas. Many trees were knocked down in Eagan, Minn. and parts of St. Paul, tree branches were down over a side area and power was knocked out in parts of the Twin Cities. Forecaster Jim Richardson of the National Weather Service says some street flooding was reported as between one and three inches of rain fell. Northfield received 2.7 inches of rain and the weather service office in Chanhassen reported 1.5 inches. Winds of 74 miles an hour were recorded at the Alexandria airport. The storm developed in west-central Minnesota shortly after midnight, moved through a wide area of central Minnesota and reached the Twin Cities around three a.m. There's a 50-50 chance of more storms in the Twin Cities and central Minnesota Saturday, with a high near 90.


Overall though, it was a fantastic experience! We missed waking up outside in the morning, but that will have to wait until next time. We were all happy to be safe in our beds during the storm. The kids had a fabulous time and love talking about the camping trip. It really was a smashing success!