Spring Break Camp

Our dear friends the Johnstons invited us to go camping with them in Shelby Forest on the weekend of spring break. March is an awesome time to camp when you live in the South. It's cool enough to sleep at night and the bugs haven't come out yet! We had such a great time! I got there early in the afternoon on Friday to set up camp with the girls and Caleb drove up to meet us after work.

Our families get along so well. Emme adores Bennett, Jane and Olivia and Audrey are buds, and Malan loves helping with their little Caleb and baby Evie. And Becca and Derrick are some of our most favorite couple friends. We cooked yummy hobo dinners over the fire and roasted mallows and sang camp songs late into the night.

Oscar did such a great job sleeping in his snow suit and crib in our tent. It was like a full-body sleeping bag. I was worried he'd be up all night, but he slept like a champ.

I love this picture of these two so much:

We woke up to a chilly morning and had hot cocoa and pancakes around the fire, and then headed into the woods for a hike. Oscar did not love the hiking pouch, so I carried him in my arms a fair bit. That was pretty exhausting. Then we missed a turn somewhere, which turned our one point five mile jaunt into a really long hike without enough water. The kids got tired, but they were super good sports about it and just kept walking. (post edit: I was about a month pregnant here and really, so so tired on this hike!) But man, the forest was so beautiful. Lots of blooming flowers and ferns and birds singing everywhere. The South and its over-abundant life of all kinds is something I'm so glad to have been able to experience.

The Johnston Fam! We had them take one of us too, but unfortunately I had the exposure set too high on my camera, so it turned out all white. And here is a little fern-umbrella-ed log walker.

We were all quite happy to see our campsite when we made it back. The kids climbed down to look for/pretend to be fairies in the gully behind our campsite while the grown ups packed up the gear and Malan kept track of the babies. Then we drove over to the Shelby Forest Easter Egg Hunt and nabbed some candy. Such a great time! Thank you to the Johnstons for getting us out for a camping trip, we really loved it.