toddlers love the great outdoors

It could not have been a more beautiful day. Sunny, cool, breezy, leaves starting to turn colors--ahh, perfection! We spent the entire day outdoors. We had breakfast outdoors (biscuits from scratch, sausage gravy, scrambled eggs--all the luxuries of home!) together, after which the babies enjoyed a wagon ride around the campground. They had their first little tiff of the trip then because Chloe thought that Dennis' shoulder would make the absolute perfect footrest for her wagon ride and he disagreed. They halfheartedly slapped at each other and he got pretty offended (he's the more sensitive one of the two, while Chloe's been mostly successful at defending her turf all year at daycare). But they were over it quickly and none the worse for the experience.

We set up the baby containment unit (umm... large screen house!) and turned them loose with balls. Every one of us spent time in there playing and wrestling with them, and they had the best time! We liked the fact that they couldn't just run off but could be turned loose to play. We were especially glad that we could let them play in there while we set up the campfire for tonight, and we wouldn't have to worry about any fire accidents. We congratulated ourselves on our brilliance for most of the day until Dennis figured out how to unzip the door and free himself and Chloe a couple of times. Oh, well. We could have tied the zippers down, but instead just held them on our laps around the campfire. It worked.

We were delighted that Gran and Pop came up and joined us for a beautiful hike by the lake and a chili supper, followed by some campfire conversation. Shortly after they left, we put the babies to bed and then toasted marshmallows. I wouldn't have minded toasting a marshmallow for Dennis, but it seemed so much safer to keep both my hands on him at all times, so we waited until after bedtime. Didn't want them to see us putting stuff in the fire, either!

The kids seemed to really like the campfire. Chloe wanted to go to it. Dennis stared at it, mesmerized like his Mommy always is. He said "hot" often while pointing to it. And once when he said "hot", he pulled his arm out of the sleeve of his sweatshirt and poked it up through the neck hole, so he had one arm completely free (the better to cool himself with, I guess...). While staring into the fire, Dennis pointed and said "dog". Honey wasn't by the fire at the time, so I corrected him once and said "campfire", and he insisted "dog". And when we looked where he was pointing, there was a log shaped exactly like a dog head, complete with grinning mouth (with glowing coals making an orange 'smile'). He was right. There was a dog in the fire. How creative he was to spot it!

We all had such a perfect outdoor day. The chili supper was messy, of course, but Dennis learned how to master his spoon tonight. He ate an entire bowlful. The babies took long afternoon naps and got tired early tonight. It got pretty cold out, so we didn't mind putting them to bed in the nice warm campers while we all huddled around the fire to stay warm. If I'd had the energy, I could have sat by the fire all night! There's just something so calming about watching a (safe, controlled) fire. I love camping! And I think Dennis does, too.