camping with two

We decided on Beaver Lake as our camping destination as its really pretty and relatively close (just over an hour).  However, there are only a jillion camp grounds on Beaver Lake, making it hard to pick one.  Luckily, I came across the blog of a native Rogers, AR mom of two who listed off the sites she recommended and why.  We ended up choosing Prairie Creek Campground because it was one of the closest and had a kid friendly trail on site.

Jason took off a half day, but we still stayed in town to let the boys get a good afternoon nap.  Well-rested boys make for much better travelers.  This gave us time to double and triple check that we had all the camping essentials.

 Can you tell they are brothers??

The campground was pretty empty, so we pretty much had our pick of sites.  After driving around for a little while, we found one close to the bathrooms, flat tent spots, not close to anyone else, and lots of room to play.  Perfect. Jason started the fire so we could feed our hungry travelers and then started setting up the tent.  We had the gourmet dinner of hotdogs!  I decided to keep it as easy and cheap as I could.  We did have broccoli foil packs so they got a few vegetables in while on this trip.

Amos has reached a wonderful camping age.  He roamed around the site, enjoying all the leaves, dirt, rocks, trees and occasional bug he could find.

Silas has some growing to do before he reaches optimal camping age.  It helped that he's not completely mobile because he was OK sitting on a mat playing with toys for awhile, but he just really wanted to be able to get down and shove as much dirt and leaves into his mouth as he could before I could stop him.  I'm thinking the spring is going to be a really good age for him and camping!

I was a little worried that we wouldn't be able to fit the pack-n-play, Amos' little tent, and two cots in our four person tent, BUT WE DID!  The game plan was to put Silas down first and let him get good and asleep before we put Amos down.  Then let Amos get good and asleep before we snuck in.  Well,  that Amos is a tricky one.  Silas was in the tent and Amos was out with us, but he kept saying, real sweet like, "I'm tired Mom.  I'm ready to go to the tent."  We kept trying to persuade him to stay out with us by the fire.  Then he started rubbing his eyes so I thought we might as well put him down.  Minutes later I hear this:  "Si guy, what are you doing" (Silas' laughter) Followed by both boys screaming with glee!  That trickster!

Eventually, both boys fell asleep and we were able to enjoy campfire coffee and conversation.

We tried to sneak into the tent, but if you've been in a tent, you know there's no sneaking.  Silas woke up, but luckily, fell right back to sleep.  Moose didn't even stir.  I kept thinking the temperature was going to drop because I had put both boys in warm socks and footed pjs.  But it didn't.  I spent half the night outside of my sleeping bag.  The poor guys woke up all sweaty.  Better hot than cold, I guess.   Other than that, the night went really well.  Neither of then woke up, which meant lots of sleep for Mom!

We did, however, get an early start to the day.  Silas could see me from the pack-n-play and I woke up to his smiley face at about 6:40.  Amos followed quickly.  Then we just had to wake up Dad.  Breakfast was easy; leftover oatmeal muffins from the day before and bananas!

Amos is giving the muffins and fire a thumbs up in this picture.

And I can't forget the coffee!  We used Jason's pour over method and it tastes just like at home.

Amos spent the morning riding his bike all over the campground and Silas went from the floor mat to our laps and back again.

We didn't have plans to stay real late into the day and knew there was a possibility for rain, so we went ahead and loaded everything back in the tent after breakfast.  Then we set out to find the trail.  Silas was on Dad's back and Amos hiked the whole thing.  He did a great job, but as soon as we got done, he told me he was itching!  Yep, we forgot to spray on insect repellant.  He was covered in seed ticks.  Poor guy!  He just stood there and let us undress him and pick them all off like it was no big deal.  My skin was crawling, of course.  We quickly ate our sack lunch and headed for home.  By this point, we just wanted showers.  I spent the next twelve hours itching and constantly  checking myself for ticks.  I hate them.

We're all still a little itchy (minus Silas, he didn't get a single bite!!!), but thankfully, nothing serious.  Amos is already ready to go camping again.