Well, maybe we didn't spend THAT much money, but this last camping trip seemed to be really expensive. Hopefully we "have it all" now and won't have to buy so much next time.
Last fall, we booked a two day camping trip to Ft. Desoto with our friends from Naples. Unbeknownst to us girls...we booked it on "Master's Weekend", which mean we got to listen the guys cry about missing the golf tournament on TV (however, they got home in plenty of time to watch the last several hours of the final round).
The week before our trip, the kids and I studied Florida waterways, fish, and all things fishing. I knew there were a couple fishing piers that they would have fun fishing off of, and it's always more fun when you know what you are doing.
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| Practicing a fishermans' knot |
We spent each day last week learning how to tie fishing knots, the proper use of different lures, what kind of fish to expect, etc. We visited a great little hunting, fishing consignment store near by and got a crash course on all things Florida Fishing from the owner. He ever helped up put new, braided, line on our poles. We learned how to tie leaders so the fish wouldn't see the swivel hooks as easily, and took a "field trip" to Dick's sporting goods to pick out some lures (to bad the kid helping us didn't have a clue about fishing : (
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| Success! |
Off Jeremy and the kids went to Walmart to stock up on everything they could ever want for fishing.
Meanwhile, I was at the grocery store, buying food in case we weren't able to catch our dinner (without giving to much info...let's just say....that was a great idea ;)
By early afternoon, we were headed to our campsite, truck loaded down with every possible camping need we could have, or so we thought.
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| She put up her own tent |
After an hour of unloading and tent building, I asked where the air mattress was. Let's be real, we are in our mid thirties, and sleeping on a shelly, sandy, rocky, pot holed ground is not for me anymore. Thankfully, this sit has electric which was perfect for our double filled, queen sized air mattress. No shame here.
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| Christmas lights at the camp site kept the racoons away |
Except, we didn't pack it. It was still upstairs at our house, over an hour away. We also, intentionally, did not pack sleeping bags. Yep, I yuppied it up a little more and just brought a sheet and quilt for our comfy air mattress. I knew that we would not make it through the night, let alone the next day without a decent amount of sleep.
Good thing...our friends also forgot a thing or two, and Brooke and I took off for a nearby Walmart. Yep...I bought an air matress (and so did Brooke), and a few other things as well.
When we got back, the guys had dinner pretty much done. A few years ago, my parents gave us these neat hamburger grillers. You fill them full of burger meat, close the lid and hold it over your campfire. They turned out pretty good ;)
That night, we did not put the rain fly on the tent. There was zero chance of rain, and we expected a warm, humid evening. Besides...isn't it everyone's dream to lay under the stars at night? Yeah, not mine either. I *might* have slept about an hour that night. Between the cold wind blowing, the loud sabal palms, waiting for racoons to ransack the camp (they didn't), and listening for my daughter who was sleeping all by herself in her own tent near us....it was as sleepless night. I finally dozed off, when a few minutes later, a cute little 4 year old started jumping on me saying "mommy, the sun is up....it's morning, it's morning. You need to get up now!".
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| This is how Nicole "nested" in her tent. |
So, I got up.
I cooked a yummy pancake, bacon, and eggs breakfast (I used my electric griddle. I used to do it over the camp fire in the old days....but it's to frustrating with hungry kids running around ;)
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| The kiddos, waiting for food. |
The kids and daddies spent time playing wiffle ball and just having a great old time together.
Late morning, we headed off to the pier again to catch up some dinner. We had it ALL! We were ready! We even had a cast net to get our own bait fish (it stayed in it's original container).
We fished for at least 2 hours....not one bite...nope, not a one! In fact, no one around us was really catching them either. But, we had fun. Nicole is really, really good at casting her line. I was really happy with how well she did.
Someone caught a puffer fish, and another person caught a ramora! That was fun for the kids to see.
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| Ramora. Nicole put her book on the suctions, and it stuck to her book, that was how we got it flipped back into the water. |
We only saw two Spanish Mackerel pulled up (by others) the whole time we were there. It just wasn't our day.
After a quick picnic lunch, we took off to explore the fort. The kids had fun showing their friends around the prison cells and cannons.
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| I love this picture. I request that this go in the senior yearbook :) |
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| Sad Face :( |
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| Happy Face! |
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| Sad Hannah and Peyton |
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| London was "posing" |
Our family went back to the pier to try fishing some more. It was just the five of us. After an hour...still no fish, except the one I snagged and had to throw back.
Reluctantly, we walked away again, knowing we would go hungry for dinner (except that mom is always there to save the day with real food ;) We joined our friends again and went canoeing. This ended up being our family's favorite hour of our camping trip. We saw several sets of sting rays in the shallow back water, and explored a shallow area full of lightening whelks. We got into water fights, made our kids cry, and even through one into the water (which made the rest of us laugh again). It was beautiful, peaceful, and fun. No pictures though :(
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| Tree climber |
Back to camp to eat dinner and play ball some more.
Then one more trip to the pier for the sunset (my favorite, favorite place to be when the sun is going down). It was beautiful. We threw the line in the water a few times with no bite, then spent a few minutes exploring the beach.
We finished off the night with icecream and more 'smores.
The funny moment was when we were playing "hot potato" around the camp fire. Bryan made a rule that you had to answer a question before you could toss the ball to the next person. We had to say things like our favorite candy bat or sports team, or a math problem. Then Jeremy said, "Ok, this time, mom has to ask a question that the kids should know (implying a CC Question)." Nate, who was fairly quite that night spoke up and said, "I'm going to the tent", Go up and walked away. It was so funny because it was perfectly timed to imply "I'm not answering anymore CC Questions! Good night!" hahaha. It was a fun time.
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| I have a little competition...and she's a cutie! London loved talking to Jeremy :) |
Nicole slept in her tent again that night, we put the fly on ours, and we all slept much better. It was a fun weekend, that started off a little shaky, but we all really enjoyed.
However, I still think it may have been cheaper to go to Disney....but not nearly as fun!
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