Williams Family Camping Adventure

We just returned from our little family's first camping trip, and boy was it memorable! We have been wanting to go camping for some time now, but last summer was not an option for this preggo momma since I started having back pain at around 8 weeks with Eliana.  You might be thinking, wait your pregnant now.  Yes...yes I am.  I told Brendan, we better go camping now or its going to be a while. Originally I agreed to "primitive" camp. Primitive in my dictionary means no bathroom facilities. That's been my criteria from the beginning, as long as they have running water and a bathroom, I'll go camping. My new preggo citeria is that I must have a bathroom and an air mattress. Don't misunderstand me, I enjoy camping, but we both realized that camping is A LOT different with a baby.

Camping Lesson #1: Bring a pac and play, so baby can be mobile in a confined space!

We ended up taking our little brood to Indian Cave State Park in Southeast Nebraska along the Missouri River.  This park was so pretty! I couldn't believe I was still in Nebraska. There were lots of trees, valleys and beautiful views. I highly recommend taking a drive to this park, I know we will go back!

So we arrived on Friday around 3 in the afternoon, hoping to claim one of the 10 tent sites with electricity. There was only one other camper when we arrived. This is a campers delight (or at least my husbands) because privacy is key to an enjoyable camping experience....or so we learned. Out of the 30 surrounding campsites, wouldn't you know another family decided to pick the spot right next to ours. I won't complain too much, but let's just say I learned all the kids names (because of their parents yelling at them CONSTANTLY), I realized you can tell a lot about a person by the tone in their voice, and I love my family. :)

Williams Campsite

My New Nemisis
I.HATE.TICKS! Shortly after we arrived and setup our campsite, I spread out a blanket under a tree for Eliana to roll around on. I sat down with her and discovered tick after tick after tick on the blanket and on my BABY!!!! These suckers were huge! Fortunately I found them all before they bit her. Our poor Dog found the majority of the ticks. On the first night I had just got in bed and was laying there. I thought I felt a leaf or piece of grass on my back so I picked it off and just to be sure got my flashlight and discovered it was a Mammoth Tick!

Camping Lesson #2: Bring tweezers to remove ticks

Our First Miserable Night
So after the discovery of my little tick friend, I think I laid there for an hour feeling like there were bugs crawling all over me! We also were freezing! I'm not sure if the temperature was lower than expected or we are just weenies. So we froze the whole night. Then Eliana woke up and wouldn't go back to sleep unless in bed with us. The next morning we joked it was the worst night of sleep we ever had....or so we thought.

Camping Lesson #3: Bring your sleeping bags, just in case.

Exploring
There is a lot of history at Indian Cave State Park, what they are most known for is the cave with ancient petroglyphs. We drove through the park and arrived at the cave. We couldn't take Ruger up to the cave so I took Ellie to explore the "cave" while Brendan stayed with the dog.

That is the "Cave" behind us

Missouri River near the Cave

There are two landings you stand on to look at the petroglyphs carved into the side of the cave/cliff.  Unfortunately, over time people have made their own mark on the cave and it was really hard to find the petroglyphs through the "So&so loves so&so" and "Dave was here" carvings. We didn't get the chance to hike any trails but wish we could have, I'm sure they were beautiful. There is also a great area of history about a small Indian Trading Post, including a log cabin and one-room school house.  We didn't get to explore since we had a sleeping baby in the car. Also along this road is a beautiful scenic view of the Missouri River.

The Second Miserable (and scary) Night
All week they had been predicting storms for the weekend, but we've learned to take everything the weathermen say with a grain of salt. We tried to keep updated on the weather with our phone apps, and knew there was a possibility of a rainstorm Saturday night. We were so tired from the night before that we got in our tent at 8:30. We put Eliana to bed on her pallet around 9 and then we went to sleep around 10.  Of course, since I'm pregnant an hour later I had to go to the bathroom. I couldn't go back to sleep after that, the wind seemed to pick and I was getting concerned. Around 12:25 I woke Brendan up just as this huge thunderstorm blew in! It was crazy windy and pouring rain. I scooped Ellie up off her pallet just in case our tent collapsed, I didn't want to go searching for her. Brendan was literally holding on to the top of our tent because he thought we were going to have lift off! The really bad storm lasted for about 15 minutes and our baby pretty much slept through it all.  Of course I had to make a run for the bathroom in between storms. It basically rained all night, although it wasn't as bad as the first storm. Our tent withstood the storm! No damage and no water leakage! Our neighbors didn't fare so well, they spent the night in their cars when the wind took off their rain guard. I was so exhausted that I slept most of the rest of the night, but poor Brendan didn't sleep much at all.  He slept the rest of the night on his back with his glasses on worried that we might have to run for the car at some point.

Camping Lesson #4: Get a weather radio

Sunday morning we woke up and both agreed to not fix breakfast but just pack up and head home. We were so ready for showers, no bugs, bed, and a real roof over our heads.

We had quite the adventure and enjoyed our time together as a family, here are a few other photos from our trip.

Just Chilln'

Outdoor Kitchen

Master Griller Hard at Work

Our little Family

I love them!

Hi Papa!

And this is why I'm always laughing. She makes the funniest faces!

First swing ride