Beach Camping

There's something so magical about camping at the beach.  We live about 1.5 hours away from the beach.  This is just long enough to make it somewhat inconvenient to go often.  Camping at the beach is a cheap and really fun solution to this problem...

Bring on one of many (I hope) fall camping trips.  We have a group of about 8-10 friends that share our joy for camping.  A couple times a year we all pack up our cars and embark on these really fun weekends where we all come back dirty, sweaty, tired, and 2 lbs heavier from all the food.  I grew up camping, it brings me closer to my 'roots' so to speak to sleep in a tent and cook eggs over a fire.  I love it.  In Florida you have to change your mindset a little.  Up north where I grew up, you can only camp (comfortably) from May-Sept maybe.  In Florida, these are the months you DO NOT want to be sleeping in a tent outside.  So we've had to transition to enjoying camping in oct, nov, april, and may.  My husband didn't grow up camping, but he loves it.  We want Mimi (and other future children) to share this love.  As a side note--it's kind of funny, I was just reading my friend's blog about how she wants her daughter to share her love of food, and my wording here is so similar, just substitute camping---lol anyway....

We want Mimi to feel at ease sleeping outdoors, being around a fire, and getting a little dirty and not fussing.  She's there man--this kid can camp.  This was not her first camping trip, but this time we did not bring the travel crib.  We had her just sleep right between us in the tent, something we've never even done at home---ever.  But we were trying to travel light due to the number of people and space.  She did well with the hazards of the campsite.  We wore her out walking and swimming and beachin' it up.  We even kept her up late and took her to the beach with us at night and let her run around and play with glow sticks.  My husband went swimming at night and said it was really fun.  I enjoyed the cool breeze and the stargazing wrapped up in my fleece.

I will spare you more camping details.  Just know, you CAN camp with a one-year-old, and it CAN be fun and safe.

I hope to do one or two more of these weekends before it gets really cold.

Cheers!

This week will be busy,
2 weeks left to the 5K, i'll be finishing week 8 (last one) of my training program this week
We are cooking dinner for two great friends celebratin their bday's tomorrow
We have Friday off for homecoming!

Later Gators....