Our First Camping Trip

Ok, so it wasn't our FIRST camping trip but it was our first time camping alone as a family.  We tent camped too!  We went to the Redondo campground in the Jemez Mountains about an hour away.  You learn a lot on your first solo camping trip, at least we did.  First pack warm clothes, hats, gloves, etc. even if you don't think it will be cold enough for them.  The weather report said it would be 50 at the lowest.  Wrong!  It got down to 35 and we only brought light jackets.  Crappy parent award for us!  The kids were so whiny Saturday morning when they woke up freezing.  I had slept beside Meredith and she woke me up at least 10 times saying she was freezing even though I did everything I could to keep her warm.  These kids don't know what it's like to be uncomfortably cold!  We'd tell them to stand by the fire and the girls would say "But it's too smoky!"  There was nothing we could do to calm Meredith down either.  Or so we thought.  Finally she was being so bad that Ben put her in time out...in the sun.  Genius.  She calmed down and we ended up having a wonderful day!  We also forgot some things like a can opener, broom/dust pan (for tent) and hot chocolate.  How could we forget that?  It is kind of sad that this was our only and last chance to camp here in New Mexico.  I wish we would have done it sooner!  Now that we've experienced our first solo camping trip I can foresee many more to come, though.  Hopefully more in Ben's parent's trailer than the tent but now I know we can survive this way :)  Here are some of my favorite pictures of our trip.