Early final week, Ryan and I glanced at our calendar and realized we had a very free weekend on our calendar. We checked the climate and after we noticed sunny skies, temperatures within the higher 60s and crisp, cool mornings and evenings within the forecast, we hopped on the Dan Nicholas Park web site to see if any campsites had been obtainable. We nabbed the final web site and made our option to the campground prepared for a weekend of campfires, fishing, exploring and out of doors household time.
We’ve tent camped with the boys earlier than for Ryder’s birthday and Father’s Day final yr however this was our first fall tenting journey. It’s protected to say we’re all big-time followers.
We returned to Dan Nicholas Park in Salisbury, North Carolina for our first try at fall tenting for a myriad of causes. It’s near our home — a few 60 minute drive — and there’s so, a lot to do on the park. For any native mates, even when tenting isn’t your factor, Dan Nicholas is completely value a go to because the charming park is house to a number of playgrounds, a mini zoo, gem mining, mini golf, paddle boating and extra. (It seems like a step again in time as many of the actions are priced below $2 per individual.) The campground is positioned throughout a small lake from all the sights which we love because it makes tenting really feel secluded from park guests however all the pieces remains to be walkable through the lakeside path.
We felt extra assured going into this yr’s tenting journey as we examined all of our gear out final yr and knew we had some winners on our hand. Our tent is severely the most effective funding we’ve made in our tenting adventures because it’s large however ridiculously simple to assemble. Ryan had all the tent arrange for our household inside 5 minutes of our arrival. Actually. It’s a gem.
The tent additionally has zip-down dividers you need to use to part off the tent which we nonetheless utilized to create separate sleeping areas for Rhett on one aspect, me and Ryan within the center, and Chase and Ryder on the opposite aspect. (For any tenting fans with little ones, the tent is definitely tall sufficient for a pack ‘n’ play!) And this mini noise machine was lots loud for all of us to make use of in our tent and simply held a cost all night time lengthy.
We spent a lot of time on the campsite because the boys had been all about taking part in in and across the tent and constructing and sustaining a big campfire. They liked gathering little sticks so as to add to our fireplace, making s’mores (each conventional s’mores and Reese’s s’mores), lighting sparklers and snuggling below blankets to play the sport “I’m Going Tenting,” a basic I liked as a child, too.
Our transportable ALDI tenting chairs I purchased on a whim final yr have held up properly for the boys (they’re almost equivalent to these tenting chairs) and I can’t let you know how a lot I really like the pop-up outside rocking chair we purchased to convey to Chase’s soccer video games this fall. It was the coveted seat on the campsite! (I used to be sitting in it to take the above pic however you’ll be able to see it within the first pic of our tent.)
The small lake at Dan Nicholas Park can be an enormous draw for our household. The boys simply spent hours fishing, catching and releasing frogs, watching the geese and exploring alongside the path that wraps across the total lake.
We encircled the lake many instances throughout our tenting weekend and plan to do our greatest to safe a coveted campsite on the lakefront the following time we camp at Dan Nicholas.
Our boys assume nighttime on the campground is the good and the sooner sundown time labored in our favor within the fall versus the summer season when it doesn’t get darkish till near 9 p.m. With the skies pitch-black by 7:15 p.m. each night time, the boys had been thrilled to have the ability to be awake for some time with their flashlights, searching for nighttime creatures and strolling alongside the lakeside trails.
We had been the one household exploring the paths at night time which was an ideal mixture of enjoyable and spooky for the children. There have been numerous giggles and shrieks and flashlight beams darting throughout the woods. Nighttime on the campground was a spotlight for our crew for positive! Sleeping, then again, wasn’t the most effective however we’ve come to count on that when tenting with children. We had been up a handful of instances with the boys to assist with exterior lavatory breaks, twisted sleeping bag points, a pillow that fell off an air mattress, and so on. Much less-than-stellar sleep is properly definitely worth the recollections for our household, although we’re in a section of life the place our youngsters are letting us sleep properly at house at this level so we all know we’ll have the ability to catch again up on relaxation quickly. (I’m simply saying this to say I’m undecided I’d be down for tenting if I knew I used to be coming house to nights of damaged child sleep. Ryan known as our Saturday night time of tenting the “night time that might by no means finish” as we had been up so typically and I couldn’t assist however replicate on horrible sleep from our child days. Yeesh. Ya simply always remember that section of babyhood! I’m sending a bit further like to these of you within the thick of sleepless nights proper now and know full-well they’re so, so draining. I promise you it’ll get higher!)
We arrived house from tenting on Sunday afternoon and spent the remainder of our weekend doing a lot of laundry, unpacking and getting organized for the week forward earlier than doing our greatest to get everybody into mattress on the sooner aspect of the night, one thing that the time change fortunately helped us obtain!
As for the week forward, this one is a bit funky as all three boys are solely in class on the identical days for 2 days this week however I’ll do my finest to verify in on the weblog after I can. I hope you all have a beautiful week and revel in your Monday!
