Antonio Thomas: Camping

We went camping for the second time with Antonio this weekend, and once again it was a succeess. We went again with my friend Erin, her husband, Pete, and their son, Jack, who will be 6 in October. The boys played very well together and happily there wasn't any "fighting". :) We went to Ike Kinswa State Park which is down by Centraila so it is about as close to "in the middle" for both of us as it can be. The weather was cold and wet but we had a great time.

Last year, we went in August and there was a burn ban so there were no campfires...at all. It was weird. Happily, Antonio didn't know the difference since it was his first time camping but hot dogs, s'mores etc were done over the camp stove. :( And after, it was dark it was weird without a campfire. Happily it wasn't cold too. This year, there was no burn ban so we were able to enjoy the fire, and s'mores. Antonio's favorite part was roasting marshmallows; he loved it. He also enjoyed helping Pete tend to the fire, whether Pete wanted him to or not. ;) Pete was a good sport about it.

We were there Saturday - Monday which turned out great. Saturday was crowded, every site was full, but the majority left Sunday morning. On one side of us was a baby, young baby. It cried most of the evening/night Saturday night. I felt bad for them yet was so thankful they were leaving the next morning! We all were. I verified their reservation was over the next day and it was. Sunday it rained off and on all day so most people left earlier on (checkout is 1:00) and by noon we were one of maybe 5 or 6 site filled. The closet one to us was around the corner and 3 or 4 sites down so it was nice. We all appreciated the lack of neighbors and decided we should always plan it this way. The boys ran around exploring, finding (and creating) new trails and making noise, which was fine since we didn't have any close neighbors. We were very close to the bathrooms which we also appreciated and since the sites are around a loop there were many ways to get there. Sunday over to Monday we maybe saw 2 or 3 people walking to the bathroom, again, so nice. This years site seemed much bigger than last years and after looking at last years pictures, I am pretty sure it was. Much more room!

The only thing that would've made it better was warmer weather. However, with the colder weather we stayed close to the fire most of the time which in turn allowed us to spend more time together. Last year it was much warmer and we were inclined to go off and explore more; I'd take somewhere in between. When we leave I always wish I had more time with them, especially Erin because for some reason I feel like we never get any good chatting time in. Oh well. All in all, our 2nd annual camping trip with The Eberlein's was a good one! Already looking forward to next years!