Spring break camping at Chalk Blufffs

Matt's 2 weeks of rest and relaxation after being in Afghanistan conveniently landed during the kids Spring Break.  Matt wanted to go camping and we decided Spring Break would be a great time to do that.  At the suggestion of some friends we went camping to Chalk Bluffs with Brandon and Kim Tourtillot and their four kids.  With rain at the beginning of the week we ended up only going for a single night.  That night we had our tin foil dinners we look forward to when camping.  We also enjoyed  s'mores, and dutch oven cobbler as we stayed up talking around the fire.

It turned out to be the worst night of camping I have had.  Blake cried for a while when Matt was trying to put him to sleep around 10 PM.  After a while I gave up and held him by the campfire to fall asleep.  We were finally able to lay him down.  When we went to sleep at midnight he woke up and screamed unconsolably.  We decided it would be best to take him to the car with me to sleep in there for the night.  Matt went and moved our stuff around in the minivan and put the seats down to make a little bed.  Blake would not let me turn off the lights in the car until he fell asleep.  I slept in a little ball and kept waking up to make sure Blake was covered.  He woke up again at 5 and would only sleep with me holding him.  Every time I would try and put him down he cried.  I held him for an hour until I could finally lay him down without waking him up.  He slept until 7.  At least everyone woke up pretty happy.

Though exhausted from the long night, we enjoyed exploring, skipping rocks, and swimming in the river the next day.  There was an area upstream of where we camped with a wide shallow area lined with smooth rocks where the kids could tromp around in the freezing water.  The kids worked on a stone version of sand castles.  Blake discovered the wonderful world of Cheetos and got to show off his smooth dance moves when another family pulled up blasting the AC/DC "Back in Black" album.  Matt gave in to peer pressure to try out a rope swing into the deeper freezing water on the far side of the river, and we all enjoyed hanging out with the Tourtillots.  Despite the rough night it turned out to be a good camping trip.