Camping at Shenandoah

We had 8-10 families from our ward camp out this weekend up at Mathews Arm in the Shenandoah Park. It was a lot of fun. We just stayed one night; which was very restorative. It feels so long since we've been camping, although we went camping at the beach last month. Its different when your surrounded by tents and mountains and trees instead of the ocean. When we went to the beach, there were ton of RV's and such- it didn't make it feel like we were out in nature. The beach was a little warmer- but overall I think I like mountain camping more. It could be because that's what I'm used to. We saw lots of deer, but no bears which have been an issue this year. A couple of families saw bears and one heard one but that was all of the excitement.

Sleeping well and camping pregnant don't really go hand and hand, but overall it wasn't too bad. I definitely like camping non pregnant better! :) Good thing it was cold out! Anyways, Afton did not sleep well at all in her pack and play which was really surprising. She did sleep while we were able to play games and toilet paper Brother Hayward's truck, which was nice. Just to clarify, Imelda Done would have been fine getting toilet papered. I asked! (For those not in the ward, the Done's are in the ward and Brother Done is in the bishopric so by tradition standards he would have been the one toilet papered if we weren't so afraid Imelda would never want to come camping again. :) Anyways, Afton woke up around 11 pm, screaming and we couldn't get her back to sleep in the pack in play. She pretty much stayed up until 2:30 am, being cute between Joe and me. She would plop her head on my chest and say things like "hi" and "mom, mom mom" in her cute, high baby voice. She finally fell asleep and Joe put her back in the pack and play. She woke up again around 3:30 when I left to go to the bathroom. Oh, the joys of pregnancy. We got her to sleep between us until about 7am until she was ready to roll. Needless to say Joe and I didn't get a whole lot of sleep. We still had a great time, though.

Afton loves the Done kids. These are some of the pics with them. The pic on top is Afton with Timothy Done and the pic on the bottom is of Afton and Audrey.





The Haywards had a lot of leftover bacon and breakfast items from a past campout so breakfast of bacon, pancakes and juice were awesome. I think Afton enjoyed mountain camping a lot. She was able to run around more. She had a fun time leaving presents for everyone- when she would see an empty camp chair, she would leave a pile of rocks in the middle of the chair for someone to enjoy when they sat back down. On the way back, we did a short hike to some cliffs that overlook the mountain with a whole bunch of other little kids. Joe thought it was a lot like herding cats. It was pretty fun. We mostly carried Afton. She walked about 20 feet. She seemed to enjoy the scenery. At the top were some cliffs that overlooked the Shenandoah Valley. It was really pretty. Joe couldn't handle the cliffs and kids, pictures of falling kids kept running through his mind so we didn't stay on the top very long. Overall, we had a great time and can't wait to do it again next year. The two hour nap when we got back went a long way! :)

P.S. I stole the pics from Imelda from Facebook. Thanks Imelda!!