Let There Be Light

We had a grand time camping! We packed up the Camry with four people plus belly and a whole lotta gear, and met another pair at the campgrounds. The two campsites were side-by-side and close to the restrooms (nice!), complete with two firepits and two picnic tables. We set up the "Taj Mahal" of tents and 2-man on one site and our new, 3-person backpacker tent on the other site.

Afterward, lunch of hummus, pitas, PB&J, deli meat and cheese sandwiches for the non-pregos, fresh honeycrisp apples and grapes, crackers, two more kinds of cheese... and a good 3-mile-ish trail hike along the river. The first part of the hike was a little closer to along the river, than the last half! It was a test of my maternity balance and endurance, (which is not what it used to be) but I passed and didn't fall in the water! Many of the leaves have changed colors already. We played like kids, shuffling along and kicking the leaves about us.

Back at camp, hubby and Kerry changed clothes and set out for a run, the others continued on a walk and I hunkered down for a well-deserved nap! We snacked while we got the campfire started for dinner and played a pen-and-pencil 'categories' game that is like Scattergories, except you suggest the categories and players get points for matching each other's answers. The top 5 hairbands of the 80's, the top 7 brands of running shoes, the top 4 country music legends... Can you guess the category that hubby suggested? For dinner, chili and garlic bread (mmmm!), hot cocoa, s'mores with regular and chocolate 'mallows, chats by the fire, star-gazing, fun with headlamps, then zzzzz... Off to sleep!

I woke up a couple times due to crazy dreams and tingly hands, but slept pretty soundly through the night. Hubby particularly enjoyed my vivid dream that Lisa gave away the group's collective funds to a homeless man and got turned into a plant that we needed to water! For breakfast, we made scrambled eggs, pancakes, more hot cocoa and snacked on fruit, fig newtons, and uh, Oreos. Hubby and I forgot the syrup and the spatula! so we improvised, using berry jam and peanut butter, and making fried apples in apple cider for toppings. We carefully flipped smaller, silver dollar flapjacks for everyone. Look out Grizzly Adams!

All-in-all, we think baby enjoyed his first camping trip! We didn't try it, but hubby and friends enjoyed the Week 18 baby developments: Baby's retinas have become sensitive to light, so if a bright light is shined on your abdomen, baby will probably move to shield its eyes.