WE WENT CAMPING.

Before we had kids, Nick and I were pretty adventerous. We were up for anything at anytime. Among those adventures were lots of camping trips throughout Minnesota. We really thought that once we had kids, we could share that experience with them. We took Nugget on her first camping trip two years ago, and it didn't go so well. She totally loved everything about it, except for the whole sleeping in a tent thing. It was a long, rough night, and when storms rolled in early the next morning, we hightailed it outta there and were home in time for breakfast.

We shyed away from going last year, as I had a new baby and just really wasn't up for it.

We thought this year would be our year. With two kids in tow this time around, we were excited. Nugget was excited. And dude is just a happy camper (no pun intended) all the time, so we thought it'd be great. That the kids would go with the flow. And they mostly did.

We chose to go to Rice Lake State Park, about an hour away from our home. A new park to explore, yet close enough to home if things didn't go as planned.

It was hot. And the mosqitos were abundant. We tried everything to keep them away, but we are all pretty much peppered with the pesky little bites.

We enjoyed going on a few different walks that evening and exploring the park. We were really hoping to find access for swimming in the lake, but we had no such luck.

Nugget was super happy to be there. She had a little extra pep in her step and had such enthusiasm for gathering sticks, collecting rocks, spying critters, you name it. She even made up her own little rendition of We're Going Camping Tonight. Quite adorable, if I do say so myself.

Nick cooked us dinner over the campfire, and we enjoyed some chocolate-less s'mores for dessert. Yep, I was the mom who forgot the chocolate. Nice. The kids were just as happy with marshmallows and graham crackers, thankfully.

All was going swimmingly well until bedtime. And as feared, our night was pretty eventful. We were bound and determined to stick it out till the end this time, and to that, we made it. But we were quite exhausted today. We ALL napped once we got home, for several hours.

So although we're glad we went and had the expereince, Nick and I are in agreement that we pretty much scratched our camping with kids itch for the next several years. It's a shame.

But if we do decided to camp in the forseeable future, it won't be any further from home than our backyard. That sounds fun too. We shall see.