A Camping We Will Go

I take back everything I said about Axel being difficult. You'll understand after you finish reading this entry.

Back in February, we decided with our friends the Kellers that we would repeat our yearly tradition of camping at Shaver Lake this 4th of July....and bring the babies, of course. Yikes. So Johan and I got a little terrified at the memories of many of our friends who brought their babies in past years and were up all night, or walking baby in the stroller at 11:00 pm, or were getting yelled at by neighboring campers to throw their baby in the car (by the way, that neighboring camper was actually part of our group). Anyways, we thought we would try and train for Shaver by camping once per month with the hope of avoiding being another statistic in the camping-with-baby failures.

And so began our first camping trip on Saturday! Johan booked a campsite at Aguas Calientes out in Borrego Desert east of San Diego. I had never been there, and we were both so excited at the thought of a new adventure. We let Axel take his first morning nap, then packed the car while he slept. After he woke up we took off. It took about 2 hours to get there, and by the time we arrived, he was ready for his second nap. He fell asleep in the car about 20 minutes before we arrived, then the second we parked at our camp site, he was awake. We set up our tent and I tried to put him down for a nap in his baby tent, but this new place was just way too exciting, so we let him stay awake.

I grew up by the mountains and Johan grew up near forest, so we never understood how people could love anything else. I never understood the love of the beach, and especially not the desert. But as we viewed our campgrounds, we just thought that this place was so incredibly beautiful. Yes, it was dry as the desert usually is, but it was so huge and vast, and the sand was beautiful and almost white. One thing we also realized about the desert is that it is hard to see the beauty unless you look closely. You have to get out of your car and take a walk to see the beautiful flowers that bloom on the cactus, and the wildflowers that sprout on the ground, and the crazy shapes the cactus take on, and the warm breeze is so, so nice.

Writing in the sand "Just like Jesus!" says Daddy.

Another reason we loved this desert campground was that although Axel is STILL army crawling, here he was crawling in sand, so there was no dirty mess, it was wonderful. A funny thing was that Axel seemed so much happier here than at home. At home, he's usually bored and whining to go outside and do something fun. But here, he could crawl around and explore to his heart's content. It was paradise for all of us.

The campsite also had hot spring pools. So we got in our swim suits and headed to one of them. We splished and splashed for a while, then decided Axel was in such a good mood that we should go for a walk. He got to wear his brand new robe that Tia Monica got him, and he seemed to be happy to be allowed to go diaper-free. We dragged the umbrella stroller to the top of a small hill, and again were amazed by the enormity and beauty of this place. It was so peaceful, and everyone was walking around happy, drinking a beer.

So at this point, (6:00 pm) Axel was getting really tired. He had skipped his afternoon nap and was starting to yawn. We gave him some dinner, then took a shower, put him in his pj's, then decided to go for a short hike until he really looked tired. When he started nodding off in the backpack, we walked back and I took him into the tent. He was really scared of being left alone in the tent, so I sat there with him and rocked him in my arms and sang the songs I usually sing before bedtime (Cielito Lindo and De Colores). After about 5-10 minutes he was fast asleep in my arms. This, by the way, has not happened since he was maybe 4 months old, so he was super exhausted. I put him in his baby tent and he woke up and cried, so I laid there with half my body in the tent with him, arms around him, singing, until he fell asleep. After a minute or so, I zipped up the tent and left. SUCCESS!!!

We had some pretty loud neighbors. In fact, there were noises everywhere. Not only people, but some enormous bullfrogs whose ribbits echoed against the mountains. People were playing guitar and singing, kids were yelling and playing. So I prayed to God that Axel would sleep soundly.

As the darkness settled in, it got colder, and we started to feel guilty that he was only in his flannel pajamas. My friend, Libby, had given me a handmade triple layered fleece sleep sack. So I went into the tent and put it on him. He didn't even wake up!

The rest of that night, Johan and I were talking about what a perfect camping trip this had been. It wasn't much, we didn't do anything too exciting, but we did it, and we were proud of ourselves for conquering the fear of baby camping. But we also realized that having Axel with us was so much more fun than camping by ourselves. Probably because Axel seemed so happy to be camping, hence, mom and dad were also happy.



After a couple of beers, some campfire, an amazing dinner of barbequed rack of lamb, and some chocolate pudding, we talked a little, read a little, then headed off to bed. Another fear I had was sleeping in the same tent as Axel. I never sleep well next to him because he usually makes noises. We didn't sleep that great, but it wasn't because of Axel, it was just because we never sleep well the first night of camping. But Axel slept the entire night. He woke up once when he lost his pacifier, but I gave it to him and he fell right back asleep. He slept without a sound until 6:30 the next morning. When we woke up, we couldn't believe what had just happened. Our baby had camped successfully!


On our drive home, we made notes of everything we did to make sure that we tried to repeat it for next month when we go on our second camping trip. But part of me just wonders if every baby is just different, and it isn't necessarily all the things we did? Or maybe it's his baby tent, since he's been sleeping in that since he was 4 months old? In any case, this trip allowed us to do something we love to do (camp), and get over our fear of camping with a baby.

It was indeed an incredibly wonderful Easter.