The Great Outdoors

Lawrence and I love to be outdoors and to go camping. However, we haven't been camping as a family since Coralyn was born. We decided it was time to "fix" that "problem." So, after enjoying a wonderful couple of days with my parents in Whitewater, we headed out to the Lake of the Ozarks to introduce Coralyn to the "Great Outdoors." (She knows what the outdoors are, as she loves to play outside, but she's never experienced what it's like to live outdoors for a few days.)

We arrived at our campsite and began setting up right away. Well, let me rephrase that. Lawrence got the tent ready while I made sure Coralyn didn't run off into the "Wild Blue Yonder." As soon as she got out of the vehicle, she was ready to explore. Before long, she had discovered all the sticks and rocks around our campsite. She also saw the playground that wasn't too far away, so of course we made numerous trips to swing and slide throughout our stay. After we were all set up and had eaten supper, we took off to find the "beach" so we could cool off in the water. To save time, we didn't bother to change into our swimsuits, but Coralyn didn't seem to mind swimming in her big girl pants instead. :) Before going to bed, we decided we should clean up a bit and visited the showerhouse. Coralyn enjoyed her first shower and thought it was so much fun to stand under the water. I just had to make sure she didn't get too excited and slip on the wet floor. We figured she would be exhausted after our full day, so when we put Coralyn to bed (in her pack and play in her very own tent), we expected her to fall asleep relatively quickly...

Three hours later, she was still going strong, trying to figure out how to unzip her tent. Granted, the lovely people next to us had bright lights all around their campsite and were playing their music a bit too loudly for my taste, at midnight at least. Not to mention, it was pretty hot and muggy. We gave Coralyn some water, which she gulped down, and finally she gave up and went to sleep. She did wake up several times through the night, though, so neither Lawrence or I got much sleep.

However, we were ready to go the next morning, excited to explore some trails and let Coralyn ride a pony. Coralyn made up for her lack of sleep the night before and didn't wake up until just before 9! Oddly, she refused breakfast and was quite cranky. She seemed kind of hot as well, but I figured that was due to the humidity and warm weather. Nope! After a few hours, I realized that she was teething. And true to her pattern, she would run a mild fever, be extremely cranky and clingy, and want to sleep all day. So that's what she did. We did try to have her ride Rony the Pony, but she wanted absolutely nothing to do with him (she enjoyed "riding" the wooden pony at the zoo so much we thought she would get a kick out of being on a real horse, but not on teething day). We wanted to try at least a small hike, so we saddled Coralyn up in the Kelty and Lawrence carried her on his back. It was a good thing the hike was only a mile long because Coralyn was ready for a nap by the time we got back to the vehicle. We pulled her pack and play out of her tent and put it under a tree so she could be in the shade and have some fresh air. I figured there was no way she would go to sleep with so much activity all around her, but she was out in no time. And she slept for over 3 hours! When she woke up, we decided to go swimming to cool off. That was the only thing Coralyn smiled about all day! She absolutely loved being in the water and even added a new word, "swimmin'" to her vocabulary. She quite pretty good at kicking her legs and staying afloat (with the help of her lifejacket) all by herself. After swimming and super, we headed into town to buy a fan. We figured we would all sleep better the second night if we had some air blowing on us. We moved Coralyn's pack and play into our big tent and prayed she would sleep better. We put her down around 9 and she was asleep within minutes!

Thankfully, she woke up her happy self the next morning. As usual, her teeth had popped through and the crankiness was gone. We had our busy, busy, busy little girl back. She was up and about, collecting rocks and shooing away flies, telling them, "GO!" and "NO!" if they came anywhere close to her. :) She still didn't want to ride Rony, but we wouldn't have been able to do that anyway. About the time Lawrence had the tents down, it started to rain. We quickly loaded everything up before all our stuff (and us) got soaked. We stopped by the horses, just to say HI, on our way out of the park. Our hotel room was ready early so after grabbing some coffee and a smoothie at Starbucks, we headed to Tan-Tar-A for our day of relaxation. (Every time we go camping, we like to end with one day of "treating" ourselves.) By the time we reached the hotel, the rain had stopped, so we immediately changed into our swimming suits and headed to the pool. It had a big slide, and of course Coralyn wanted to try it out right away. I think we went down that thing at least 10 times in a row! Each time we popped out of the slide and into the water, Coralyn would shout, "Again!" Back up the stairs we would go for another trip down the slide. She had so much fun! We did stop a few times at the baby pool, and she played in the mini fountains there. Every time we tried to go into the big pool though, she would point to the slide and say, "Come here. Slide!" She would practically pull us out of the pool and drag one of us toward the slide, yet again!

Eventually, we headed back to the room for lunch and to see if Coralyn would take a much-needed nap. Oh no, there was too much to do! After playing in her bed for about an hour, we figured she wasn't going to sleep. Off we went to the Bridal Cave. At first, Coralyn wasn't too sure about being underground in a dark place, but by the end of the tour, she was walking all by herself and pointing out the rocks and the water puddles. When I asked her if she wanted me to carry her, she would answer, "No, I walk." And walk, she did, almost the entire way out of the cave. The cave was amazing, and I was in awe of how God takes such time and care to create things like that.

The cave tour didn't take as long as we expected, so instead of going directly to a Mexican restaurant for supper, we headed back to the hotel. And then to the pool, where we went down the slide another 20-30 times! Finally, we were all hungry and ready for some chips and salsa. :) To work off our tasty meal, we went to a really cool putt-putt golf course. Being the ever competitive people that we are, Lawrence and I were each determined to "win" the game. About half way through, I saw that there was a coupon for a free concrete from Andy's for the person who won the game. Sadly, I lost by one measly stroke, but Lawrence shared his ice cream with Coralyn and me, so we were all winners in my book. The people at the putt-putt place were even nice enough to let Coralyn have her own kiddy golf club and ball, which kept her occupied for about the first 10 holes. Not bad!

The next morning we enjoyed breakfast at the hotel. The restaurant place was called the "Bear's Den" and several stuffed/mounted bears were on display. Coralyn wanted to see them, and throughout the entire meal, she kept pointing to each one and saying, "Bear Bear." I was surprised she wanted to get so close and wasn't afraid at all. Most of the time when we go to the zoo she is a bit nervous around the animal sculptures or if the animals are right up against the glass in their cages. These stuffed/mounted bears didn't phase her one bit though and she was happy to take a picture next to them, grinning and saying, "Cheese" the whole time!

Overall, I would say that Coralyn's first camping experience was a success. She was a real trooper, and I hope that she will grow to love the "Great Outdoors." After this trip, we decided that we should make going camping an annual event in the Young household. We'll see how things go next year, with a 2 and half year old and a 6 month old baby! :)

(Once again, I tried to include pictures, but for some reason, they just came out as the weird computer code lingo stuff that I don't have any clue what means...if anyone knows what my problem is and how I can download the pictures so they show up as pictures, that would be fantastic!)