Camping Flashback: At Cape Lookout (twice)

Camping is a beloved activity in our family. Most the camping "trips" we did on our own in the first 10 years of our marriage were just the overnight camp outs with our ward. Super fun, but so much work for just one night. Yet, if we didn't go, we wouldn't have had any chance to camp at all that year, so in the end, it was worth it to us. We did have the amazing opportunity to go up to Alaska three times with our kids before my parents left that great state and we did a lot of camping each trip. It's definitely an enormous amount of work to camp under the best of circumstances, but obviously, camping with young children comes with its own set of challenges. And I've learned over the years, that I'd rather camp with baby than a toddler any day! It's so much easier when they're NOT mobile.

 

The summer of 2012 when JJ was just under one year, we went to Cape Lookout (on the coast) for our ward campout. It was our FIRST ever at the beach. Jared and I are not big beach people. Scratch that...we're beach snobs. We're fine with the beaches in Jamaica or Mexico or any tropical beach. But the beach in Oregon...just isn't the same. Plus with little kids...it's a stressfest! You are always trying to be hyper vigilant  regarding their whereabouts and none of the kids are capable of staying together or in groups so you're constantly whipping your head around trying to locate and count them so forget about having any meaningful conversation with any of the other adults.

 

Last year we arrived shortly before dinner time. While I prepared our meal, Jared took the kids (minus JJ who was confined to a stroller) to see the beachfront and ocean. For the two minutes they were on the beach, a sneaker wave crashed on the shore and all but knocked Karcyn over. She was drenched...head to toe. This was just an overnight camp out so I packed as such. Minus her bathing suit and jammies, those were her ONLY clothes...and underwear. *sigh* Consequently, I spent the better part of that evening roasting her underwear over our camp fire to dry it. She had to wear her bathing suit under her jammies for bedtime because it was a cool, damp evening and that tiny pair of underwear was taking forever to dry. Later that night, JJ slept a little restlessly next to me. He woke up crying once, but it wasn't anything a little bit of milk in a sippy cup on standby couldn't fix. While it was a very well planned camp out and everyone had a great time, Jared and I weren't convinced the beach was the best place for our family to camp. The fact that we don't like the mess that sand creates might have a little something to do with that too.

This past July, our ward decided to go back to Cape Lookout. With one camp out at the beach under my belt, I felt more experienced. I rolled up my sleeves, pumped my fists and said, "We got this!" The first family rule was "No going to the beach WITHOUT bathing suits on!" I also brought 2 extra pairs of clothing for the little people, just in case.

 

Jake was in his final day of basketball camp the Friday of the camp out. We knew this when we signed him up and figured 4 1/2 days of basketball camp would be better than no days of basketball camp. He was fine with it until the last day arrived. He wasn't exactly feeling the love when we picked him up close to 2pm so we could head to the coast. His "team" was in the final playoffs and he didn't get to play (to make matters "worse", we found out later that his team won!) Fortunately, Jake didn't allow his disappointment at leaving early to ruin his weekend or ours. 

 

Like the year before, we arrived around 4pm. (We always say Jared's going to take the whole day off so we can get there sooner, but we never do.) We were at a different site than we were the previous year, and we liked this one better because it was a little bit bigger--had more room for our vehicle and both our tents. We barely had room for one tent let alone two at the site last summer.

 

The sun was shining. It was, as expected, about 10-15 degrees cooler at the coast than at home and there was a breeze. But the fact that we could see and feel the sun made up for all of that.

 

 

 

 

The boys got the tents set up in a flash and then Jared took them to the beach, while JJ and I stayed behind to make our spaghetti dinner.

 

 

After dinner, we debated about what we wanted to do next. And then the McCulloughs found us so visited with them for a little bit.

 

 

 

Once Wes and Bev headed down to the beach, we continued to plan the rest of the evening. There was a big bon fire and s'mores at 7:30 but that's our kids' bedtime and they function really well with consistency. I didn't want to be anti-social, but I didn't know if I felt up to chasing JJ around (who wasn't confined to a stroller this year) and the kids were already acting tired. So...we decided to head down to the beach without our chairs (it was a little bit of a walk over there) and we would just play it by ear. Within the first three minutes, JJ had a handful of SAND in his mouth. When he coughed, sand particles came spraying out. No joke. Kind of funny....also annoying. So we asked if we could get our s'mores stuff to go. Once I got the green light, I took a couple of chocolate bars, a package of graham crackers and shoved marshmallows in my jacket pockets :) We let Cooper and Jake stay with their friends and took the three little ones back to our site. We used up the last of the wood and made our s'mores. I was a little piggy and ate three!! And I drank quite a bit of water to wash them down. More than I should have at night, when it's getting cold and when you're camping. With the summer daylight, we weren't keeping track of the time and it was about 8:45pm when we realized we needed to get Karcyn and Calvin in the tent to sleep. We tried laying JJ down on his blanket pile as well, but he wasn't having it. So we kept him up a little bit more. Unfortunately he wanted to just run and play, so "mean" mom that I am (I told my kids long ago that I got my college degree at MMU: Mean Mom University...and I graduated with honors!) I put him in the suburban and locked him in his car seat with his blanket. It was quiet, safe, warm, out of the wind and no one could hear his screaming. Forty-five minutes later that stinker was STILL awake. So we took him out and Jared held him.

 

 

It wasn't long before he settled down. He finally crashed at 10pm. Jake and Cooper came back around then. Cooper went to straight to bed and then the three of us stayed up around the fire until almost midnight. The kids were asleep and that was such a blessing.

We got nestled into our sleeping bags (Jared has a mummy bag, so seriously, all that was poking out was his nose) and at precisely 12:29am, JJ woke up crying. I grabbed the standby sippy cup of milk that I always have in the tent at night with me and you would have thought it was tar. He slapped it out of my hand. He just kept fussing and wouldn't go back to sleep. I tried EV.ER.Y.THING...he didn't want me to hold him, he wouldn't lay in my sleeping bag with me, he wouldn't lay on his blankets, he didn't want his milk, he wouldn't even BEND into a horizontal position to sleep. After three or four loooong minutes I figured I had to get him into the suburban so he wouldn't wake up the entire campground. He wasn't screaming at this point, but everything seems amplified when you're camping out in the open and at 12:30 in the morning and just because he wasn't loud at that point, didn't mean he wouldn't get louder. I had JJ in my left arm and straddled Jared to get the key fob from a pocket on the inner tent wall by Jared's head, all the while trying not to fall over and then attempted to unzip the tent door, but it refused to work with just one hand. I eventually nudged Jared with my foot and I told him I needed help. He gave me the other hand I needed to make the zipper work.

I stepped out into the night air and it took my breath away. It was FREEZING!  I think someone said it was going to be in the 40s! All I had on was my long sweat pants, a T-shirt and zip up sweater. Fortunately, I grabbed JJ's small blanket, unlocked the car and we hopped into the back passenger seat in the burb. I turned him facing me, laid him on my front, wrapped the blanket around him, rubbed his back to help keep him warm and heard my watch alarm beep indicating it was 1am. Oh, please...let this night go by quickly!

Other than laboring with Cooper through the night before he was born, that was seriously the LOOOOONNNNGGGEST night I have ever had that I can remember. I basically sat/slumped in the seat (trapped between JJ's car seat in the middle of the second row bench and the door) trying to hold JJ and support whatever position he was in. We both tossed and turned so many times. My knees and lower back (that I broke when I was in high school) were aching from being in one position and my shivering from the cold was creating more muscle pain. I couldn't feel my feet or toes, my hands and fingers were ice. Fortunately, every time I dared to check my watch, another hour had elapsed, instead of just the 15 minutes I had feared. That alone was a HUGE blessing. Around 5am, as the sky filled with early dawn light, I figured and hoped it was probably safe to start the burb so I could get some heat going. I carried JJ with me and we moved in the freezing morning air to go to the back of the burb where Jared's ignition key was. Then we ran (okay, hobbled) to the driver's side. I opened the door and leaned in with the key. I found the ignition, inserted the key, turned the key and the dashboard lights came on...but was confused when the car wouldn't turn over. WHAT???? So I tried again. Nothing. You've got to be kidding me! We needed heat and fast. JJ was starting to cry, so I headed over to the tent to wake Jared up. He'd have to start a fire for us...with very little firewood. We didn't expect to have a fire in the morning and used most of it the night before.

As I headed towards the tent, Jared was already emerging. He heard me try to start the car. So while he got a fire started, I put JJ in his car seat and shut the door so I could painfully hobble to the potty. My lower extremities ached from stiffness and were trying to thaw out. As I limped to the restrooms, I thanked heaven above that I didn't have a critically full bladder during the night (and after drinking all that water!) because I don't know what I would have done.

The fire was roaring when I got back. Jared had sent Jake to go see if he could get some firewood from the men who were at the mess hall starting up breakfast and then he tracked down our friend Brooke who was already up to see if she could give our battery a jump. She came right over. We went to go get our jumper cables out of the secret compartment in the back of the burb only to find they weren't there. WHAT??? Where were they?? They're always there!

At this point, I had come back from the bathroom and Jake had left on a 6am run with Bro. Nielsen and Bro. Dickinson on the beach up to Netarts. Brooke's van was nice and toasty (because she had been warming up her own kiddos) so even though she couldn't jump our battery, she told me to get in so I could thaw out. It was amazing what 5 minutes in front of a heater did for my body. I started to feel dizzy and sick to my stomach....lack of sleep, no doubt. Around 6:30am (thirty minutes  before breakfast would be served) I asked Jared if I could go lay down in the tent for a bit...just to be horizontal. I didn't sleep, but was definitely out of it. I heard all the distant conversations like Jared talking to the Nys family across the way, them coming over and jumping our car, the little kids waking up and having hot chocolate, etc.

We survived the rest of the morning. I was in a fog though and not feeling too well. We packed up our campsite and in the meantime, Calvin went on a ride with Tyler Nelson. Apparently, Calvin got his foot caught in the front wheel spokes and, from what I heard, flipped head over heels and scraped his cheek and chin on the road. He wasn't riding with a helmet and it could have been so much worse. I hope that will teach him!

Once we dissembled camp, we went to the beach for another hour or so. The boys went with the Nys down the beach and around the bend looking at tide pools while the little kids played in the dry sand (that...I don't mind as much). The McCulloughs had their surfing gear and three of our ward friends went out with Bev and Wes. I ALMOST got to try it, but by the time they got back, JJ was getting super fussy (it was beyond his nap time and almost lunch time) so we left around 12:30.

We made the long walk back to our camp site from the beach, cleaned the sand off our bodies, got in the burb to drive away only to discover....the battery was dead again. Fortunately for us, President Andersen was walking by right about then, so we asked him for a jump start. While the car was running, Jared called the car dealer and got an appointment for 3pm just to make sure it wasn't more than the battery. We left at 1pm and BARELY made it home by 2:47. Jared pulled up to the curb in front of our house, left the car running while we threw all of our stuff on the grass so he could tear out of there for the appointment. (It was just the battery, thankfully.) 

 

I was a zombie. On auto pilot. Afraid that if I stopped for just half a second, I would crash and not wake up. Somehow, I got the laundry started and food stuff put away. The boys got all the gear put away. Somehow, I managed to get dinner going (which was also lunch). We ate dinner, read scriptures, Jared made super amazing chocolate shakes, we watched Granite Flats (well, I dozed) and then everyone went to bed at 7:30! I actually didn't crawl into bed until 9pm, but in my defense, I had taken a couple of cat naps already. 

With the events of this latest overnight at Cape Lookout, it left us thinking more than twice about the camping reservations we had already made for three nights up on Whidbey Island, WA the end of August. We've been camping with all the kids when they were 2 years old. It's the HARDEST age for all sorts of reasons. And while we had an offer from a co-worker to use her timeshare at the coast or  in Washington instead, we decided to tough it out. Whidbey Island, here we come!