That evening, Rachel made us laugh with two things:
1) learning how to do an exploding fist pump with herself and with her blanket/doll Nunu - see video
2) learning how to play 'hide and seek', which is still a bit like peek-a-boo, and still a work in progress - see video (which is quite long)
On Friday, Jason had to work but I had Friday off with Rachel, and things didn't seem to work out to allow us to follow through on my original plans of hiking and swimming. So, at the last minute on Friday afternoon, we decided to pack up and go camping.
It wasn't the most organized packing job. I forgot to pack our toiletries and a few other small things, and didn't really know what our plans were. Rachel and I picked Jason up from school at about 5pm and drove south, through Denver traffic, toward Colorado Springs. Jason tried to finish up an essay on the way down. Our motivation for going south was that our good friend (and groomsman) Mike was visiting the Springs for a vacation from St. Louis.
We barely beat the sun to the campsite and set up camp. We opted for Cheyenne Mtn State Park, which turned out to be a wonderful place to 'try' camping. Although we went camping with Rachel a handful of times last year, every few months her abilities change, and so it felt new all over again. Camping with an 18 month old in a tent has different challenges than camping with an 11 month old did the last time we went. For $16, we got a site we could drive up to, pitch a tent on a flat gravel bed, have flushable toilets and showers, a picnic table, a fire pit, and awesome trails all around. The campsite is close to the city's restaurants, stores, safety, and the nearby military base. This means helicopters and jets fly over head most of the time, serving as entertainment for Rachel saying 'plane!' and 'copter!' over and over.
We were in our new tent for the first time. Ok, yes, we now own 3 tents. Tent 1, which Jason has had for years, is a 2+ person tent that Rachel doesn't really fit in and it's very light and not very warm. Tent 2 is a purple mammoth of a tent that's a fantastic car camping tent that we can bring our whole house in and stand up inside. A great friend gave it to us and it's awesome for car camping as long as it doesn't pour with rain (it has a couple of small leaks). So when our REI visa dividend arrived in March, we got a free tent! Tent 3 is a 3 person, 3 season tent that we can backpack with but fit Rachel inside with us and it's quite a bit warmer than Tent 1.
So... 8pm Friday night... Rachel has helped us set up camp, met the other nearby campers, played around the campsite, thrown rocks, played in the car, and does not want to put her pajamas on. Eventually we got all of us in our pajamas and in the tent, hoping to have Rachel sleep on her own sleeping pad next to us with a plethora of blankets below and on top of her. She was not interested in sleeping on her own sleeping pad since we were right there, or in having more than one small blanket put on her. Also, those darn helicopters didn't slow down much in the evening so Rachel kept saying 'Copter! Plane!' every few minutes and standing up to point up at the roof of the tent. We couldn't get away with telling her that the planes were going to sleep soon.
Did I mention that she recently gave up sleep sacks at home and now sleeps in pajamas with one blanket on her at night? When we tried to put the sleep sack and blankets on her, she protested big time... which meant that she was at risk of getting cold at night. So she came to snuggle on her Mamma's chest, and fell asleep there. She was half covered by my sleeping bag at that point while my arms and hands were out free, holding her. The rest of the night continued in a pattern: Rachel sleeps on Mamma's chest, Mamma tries to sleep but suffers, Mamma manages to move Rachel over to her own sleeping pad and covers her with blankets, Rachel and Mamma sleep for a bit, Rachel wakes, comes over to us, snuggles with Mamma, Mamma freezes to death as Rachel falls asleep, Mamma moves Rachel to her own sleeping pad... etc. Jason did take a turn in there somewhere.
Sat April 21st, 4:40am, our 5th wedding anniversary... Rachel wakes up... 'food!' and 'book! story!' and 'light'... and before long we're outside going for a walk in the sunrise. We walk on the trails, meet dogs, decide we might as well go out for a nice breakfast, and drive off to Denny's in our pajamas. Eat, Rachel falls asleep in the car, and we return to our campsite. Jason goes for a run while Rachel and I play in the playground and then go for a short hike. Rachel falls asleep in the backpack and I pack up our site. Jason returns from his run, and we all leave our campsite to go find our friend Mike.
Mike was rock climbing at Red Rocks Canyon, so we joined him there and each got a climb in. Such a treat! 75 degrees and beautiful. After some climbing we headed to lunch and then walked around the Garden of the Gods, which is really pretty and neither of us had been there before. I enjoyed the 'kissing camels' rock, and we had fun watching the other good climbers in the park. Rachel fell asleep here in the backpack for her 3rd short nap of the day, and then we drove back to Boulder for night time.
It's Sunday today and Jason has left town to go to Vail for a school FBLA conference with some students. He will return Tuesday night. Nana arrives tonight to come and visit and care for Rachel some this week, so Rachel and I are trying to clean up and get organized today so that we can survive what is likely to be a very hectic week.
Please click here to see photos
