This was Caed's first camp out, so we starting prepping him early in the week as we had him watch Elmo goes Camping and had him try out his sleeping bag during naptime and bedtime on his bed. At first, he wasn't too keen on the idea of sleeping in a bag, but once his Elmo and Monkey tried it out and hid in the bottom, he warmed up to the idea pretty quickly. Plus, he even got to use his uncle Mark's Thermarest and tent so that was pretty cool for him. (He'd point to the mat and with a smile on his face say, "Uncle Mark." Thanks, Mark.)
When Friday rolled around, all Caed could talk about was going camping. Errands and everything else for the day were a bit tough because Caed thought he should be going camping. But thankfully, we made it through the day, and when 5pm hit and Brad got home from work, we woke Caed up from his nap and he was already to go. Backpack packed, complete with Elmo, Monkey, blanket and all.
I'm not too sure of all the details of the weekend, remember this was a guys-only trip, but I know that Friday evening consisted of roasting hotdogs and I'm sure trying to wrangle the boys into their tents for bed. Caed apparently did very well. Brad tried to lie down with him at first, but he didn't want to have anything to do with it, so Brad left him alone in the tent and after a few minutes, he was out like a light .... it was after 10pm, so I'm sure he was exhausted, but pretty impressive for his first night in a tent.
From what I can gather, the boys did most of their camping-related activities the next day, including roasting marshmallows, eating pop tarts, swiss cake rolls, cupcakes, etc. (no wonder they had soooo much energy to play), visited the goats, sheep and horses, fished (Caed waded up to his knees in the lake w/ his crocs and pants on :) and even had a hayride, thanks to Mr. Jay!Interesting story about the hayride: Apparently as they were getting started and were heading uphill away from the lake, the trailer hitch on the tractor came loose and the trailer started rolling backward toward the lake. From what I can gather, they were still a ways off from the lake, but everyone got a bit nervous and Brad and Caed were the first ones to jump off the trailer and one of the dads even had to pass his kid off to another on the ground for fear of hitting the lake. Several boys were pretty upset over the event, and even though Caed was never really in harms way, once he saw the other boys crying, he started as well. (What a fun scene that must have been!)
Anyway, that's the story that I picked up from Caed's first camping trip. I'm sure there are many more stories and details I left out. After all, I was home ALONE and had the opportunity to grab dinner with a friend and go OUT to see a movie, so I was certainly not there to enjoy the fun. But I think that was the basic gist of the adventure.
