Camping Out

our backyard setup
Originally uploaded by the real 2shoes.

Now that the weather is quite pleasant, we decided to have a bit of fun last Friday and camped out in the backyard. Miri was so excited! We had talked about it during the week so there was a lot of buildup to the event. Miri was a lot of help in getting things set up. She helped to unfold the tarp and she held it down in the wind. Then after having the tent unrolled, she helped to push the poles through and raise the tent up. At that point she couldn't help but want to get into the tent, so I took off her shoes and put her in. From inside the tent she then helped to direct me in getting the rest of it finished.


For dinner, we had a "pacipalo" night. (Munchies and finger food.) In keeping with the camping feeling, Stef set up our little portable charcoal grill and got it started. What did we do with it? Well... we had S'mores of course! Earlier in the day Stef and Miri went out back into the woods and found 3 good sticks for marshmallow roasting and Stef whittled down some points on the end of them. This dessert wasn't just a hit with Miri, but with all of us. :)


Once it was bed time we all got settled in the tent; Stef and I in our sleeping bag and Miri in her portable Dora bed. The excitement was so high that it took a long while to settle down. :)


After a few more pictures and some rolling around, we finally got back to our spots and eventually fell asleep... until 3am that is. Miri woke up with a pretty bad croup cough and had a hard time breathing. She had been fighting off a bit of a cold, but the cold dry air turned out to be hard on her. Since we were just a few steps from the house, we took her inside to breath in some steam from a hot shower and Stef called the doctors just to be on the safe side. Miri got better fairly quickly and fell back to sleep in her room.

Despite the ending, it was a lot of fun and we'll be doing it again soon before it gets too hot. Miri was also a great big help in taking down the tent the next day. She wasn't happy about putting it away but felt good in knowing that we'll be sleeping in the backyard again soon.

The next round of excitement will be this weekend when Miri turns 3 on Sunday. She's been anticipating this for a long long time! :)

l8r,
J