A Campin' We Shall Go!

It's been a busy camping season already! The past two weekends my lucky boys have gone camping. The first weekend was with daddy and the Cub Scouts, while the second was our very first FULL family (including me!) camping trip with our church.

 Cub Scout Camping

We weren't sure at first if the boys were going to get to go at all, as there was bad weather and last minute family visiting plans. It ended up then that the boys left a day late (and only stayed one night instead of two), and at least got to visit with family. Luckily the weather cooperated once they were there so there wasn't any snow, storms, etc. Just chilly!

Pack

The boys were thrilled they came up with Star Wars swords to play with

Geocaching

Helping daddy setup air mattresses

Church Campout

It's never been that mama is too diva like to campout. No, it's bigger than that - and it has sharp claws - BEARS. Making matters worse, the campground the church picked happened to have bear attacks three summers ago. *gulp* As that would figure, boys wanted me to go, and I've been wanting to "attempt" camping and see how it would go....or not go....

Well....it didn't go. Before I get into why, a few pictures first...

S'mores pie! We brought it up to share among our fellow campers. Delicious.

We had reserved a Group Site...but since there was only three families total, we each had a lot of space!

The "bear proof" container for food

As soon as we got there, mama got my chair, drink, magazine and fire going!

Aaron found his own chair :)

Fish hatchery in Tonto Creek

Camping selfie! Wouldn't it have been something if a bear photobombed us?? :/

Hiking with dad

And now begins my story...all in all, if you're fine with camping, not scared of possible bear sightings/wanderings, Ponderosa Campground is great. The hosts were nice, they had clean restrooms...no complaints. As soon as we arrived we got camp set up and the boys went for a walk while I enjoyed peace around a fire.

Love listening to the wind through the trees!

Then...about a half hour before our "bear meeting" was due to start...the boys were up a slight hill above our campsite (in view, of course). Josh and I were attending the fire, when all of a sudden we heard Nate start screaming. Like, bad, cursing screaming. You can only imagine what my first thought was - BEAR! Scared out of my mind, Josh and I ran up the hill. We found Aaron all puzzled looking, with Nate just standing there screaming (and thankfully, no bear!) It wasn't until that I got to Nate a minute that I started to feel it....bee stings! I'm not sure if there was a hive or if the boys just surprised them or made them mad somehow, but they were stinging us, right up into our clothes (for instance, I had gotten stung on the inside of my thigh, and I was wearing tight-ish pants!) As quick as we could we got the boys down the hill, tried to disrobe them and get them in our tent, all the while Josh swatting to get a few bees flying around and I'm trying to just tend to the kiddos.

Josh somehow escaped getting stung at all, but I got stung twice, Aaron got stung 3-4 times, and poor Nate got the brunt of it - 6-7 times :( Luckily, the boys didn't react to the stings (though they started to swell right away, as shown below....)

I had brought Children's ibuprofen but no Benadryl....thankfully, we met a fellow camper who had some along for her allergic son. I administered that right away and thankfully (sorry, I'm apparently just very thankful!) that seemed to be all that was needed. I'd say it took 2-3 hours, but then the pain was gone and our swelling started to go down. We were fine the rest of the time.

After our "bear meeting" (which, for a bear phobiac was painful to sit through....listening to how people wake up with bears above their faces) we just hung around camp, had dinner with our fellow church campers....and then it got super dark pretty fast. I couldn't bring myself to sleep in the tent...just waaaay too many horror stories about those being ripped fast and people being dragged out. So, despite our food being in the car I "slept" in the car. Yeah I didn't sleep very well....if I could have fit underneath the seats, I would have hid underneath. I covered my head with my sleeping bag so that I literally could not see the windows. Longest night ever.

Unfortunately....I decided I couldn't stand another night. We stayed a part of the following day but then went home. I feel bad, disappointing the boys....but, I think it was big of me to even try in the first place. Now I know that unless we're staying in a cabin (something with secure four walls and a roof), that camping can be a fun bonding activity for the boys to do. They'll have a lot more fun!

We're done with camping for now, at least until July when Josh wants to go with some friends from work. Mommy will stay safely and sanely behind.... :)

And PSS- we've recovered from our stings :) Thankful (there's that word again!) that we didn't experience any itching the following day, no lingering pain....this was our first bee sting experience.