The Music Mommy: Camping Out

We finally found a weekend that we could get away for a camp out. We chose to go pretty close to home in case we needed a speedy get away in the middle of the night due to an unpredictable certain 2 year old that was going with us. It turned out to be the most perfect Fall day - the weather was gorgeous!

We didn't pack too much and we actually didn't have too much planned but it turned out to be quite eventful. We got ourselves packed up that morning and headed out to Cedar Hill State Park. We found our site and set up camp. The boys were actually really helpful and really excited. The park was busy and pretty full but our site was nice in that we weren't right on top of another campsite and nobody was too loud. We found bunnies around our site, looked for spiders at night, played at the playground and drove around the park. We relaxed by the fire or played in the tent, too.

Grandma, Gramps, Colleen, Reid and Nan camp out that evening to roast some weenies and marshmallows with us too. That was great because it kept us entertained for a while. I didn't really consider the time change when we made our plans to go camping and that it would be totally dark by 6:00!

We then had an eventful evening with a little visitor to our site. He was named "Mr. Stinky" by Brennan - yes a SKUNK!!! He made his 1st appearance just after I left for a walk to the bathroom facilities. Bryan and the kids were hanging out by the picnic table and there was the skunk about 6 feet from Evan. He wandered back into the woods after Bryan shined the flashlight at him. But he ended up making an appearance several more times that night. Bryan loaded all the food items into the car but Mr. Stinky was still interested in checking us out. We watched him from the tent...Mr. Stinky licked the ends of the skewers we roasted marshmallows on, ate a graham cracker he found under the picnic table and walked around the fire pit. He was no longer afraid of the flashlight, fire, lantern, rustling of our feet in the tent, us barking like dogs, yelling "go away Mr. Stinky!" Bryan even threw a big rock and a stick into the woods in hopes it would deter him from coming back - but no luck! After we FINALLY got Evan to sleep we were sitting out by the fire talking and out walks Mr. Stinky - AGAIN- from the woods. He was rather close but wasn't afraid. In all of Bryan's camping experience he said he's never seen a live skunk before! Wow!! I guess I hadn't either but my camping experiences are not quite as many! I'm pretty sure he came out several times from the woods that night as I kept hearing rustling in the grass behind our tent all night. YIKES! The pictures aren't that great but you can see the eyes of the skunk looking at us in this picture.

And here is Mr. Stinky under the picnic table nibbling on a graham cracker he found.

The weather did get quite chilly that night but we managed to survive even though I was so paranoid trying to keep Evan warm all night.

There is always an adventure with the Steins

The boys did such a great job at "hanging out". I love how Evan looks like he's really reading that magazine in this picture.Colleen, Reid and Gramps roasting some marshmallows....our smores were so yummy!