It was a cold night. I would have been OK except the baby was having a bad night. She hasn’t had a bad one in months, but of course the one night we’re camping she’s up every 30 minutes, fussing and thrashing around. Which would have been manageable, except every time I had to sit up and pat her I had to unzip my sleeping bag and it would take a while to warm back up again. I tried to have her sleep with me, but there wasn’t room in the sleeping bag for the two of us so half my body was out in the freezing cold. I finally wrapped her in a blanket and sat up and rocked her to sleep and then tried to sleep sitting up. It felt a lot like all those nights we spent when she was a newborn and had reflux. Except back then I had Law and Order to keep me company and my teeth weren’t chattering. At 6am the kids started waking up so I handed the baby off to Josh and tried to get a little more beauty sleep.
But it clearly didn’t work. I took this picture when I woke up because I wanted to see how bad my “mango eyes” were and I didn’t have a mirror. They’re pretty puffy, but it’s hard to say how much of that is allergic reaction and how much is to be blamed on lack of sleep.
This charming guy was strolling around and through our camp all night, braying his little heart out. I don’t know if he was lost or alerting his friends that he had struck gold in the scavenging department, but his call was LOUD and FREQUENT.
The unrestful night certainly didn’t seem to bother her any.
Getting warm by the campfire.
Carter trying to wrap his massar.
Finally thawing out in front of the fire with my Via and a warm baby in my lap.
Calvin and the other boys were roasting anything they could put on a stick — hot dog buns, bananas, oranges, pistachios . . . Calvin is trying to convince me to taste his burnt up apple because he says it tastes like apple sauce.
Caleb took it upon himself to keep the fire going. Every time he saw it getting low, he’d find another big stick to lay across the top.
Then we packed up and it was time to hit the road — this is where we really needed the 4 wheel drive.
People live and farm up here on top of the mountain.
I didn’t know donkeys were scavengers, but these guys were chowing down on the trash that was spilling out of a dumpster.
A last look across the valley to the mountains we camped on before we headed down the steep slope. We made it home without incident and didn’t need the runaway vehicle ramps after all. Once again, something that was scary in my head turned out to be uneventful in real life.
It was a great camping trip and all the boys are already asking to go back. We’ll do it again, but I’m packing some extra blankets next time!