we drove out to stonehouse park, a little less than 2 hours away. we were fortunate to not hit any traffic and nissa was pleasant the whole trip but for the last 15 minutes. being the last 15 minutes, i didn't try too hard to console her and as soon as we arrived, she forgot all about being a crabby mess. everyone fawned over her when we arrived and with some help, i had our tent up and nissa having lunch in no time at all. adam and i are so fortunate to have such a supportive group of friends that welcome children with open arms, despite the lack of "official" parents in the group. how many groups of adults really would welcome a toddler to a campsite? not many, i'd think :D
nissa jumped right in to milling around, watching folks play bags, playing with toys, keeping everyone amused with her antics. we tried to take a nap around our usual time, but no napping actually took place. nissa was hesitant to be in the tent, so i couldn't leave her by herself. but i think with me there, she couldn't get her head around napping. we did manage to spend 90 minutes more-or-less relaxing, so i took that as a win. while there, i noticed she refers to sunglasses as "akis (plural)" now. not sure where that came from, but it's interesting. it was a bit warm in the tent too, so i think that helped keep nissa moving slower that usual. the bugs were kinda brutal at the camp site, with gnats everywhere and mosquitoes a plenty. nissa spent a lot of time with her hand clamped over her nose, to keep the buggers away. she even learned to "shoo" the bugs too. poor little thing. thank goodness someone had "natural" bug spray. nissa smelled like citronella all day long, but it kept the bites at bay. we were hesitant to use the DEET product we had on hand, so the natural product was a relief.
thanks to the bugs, or not, there were an abundance of frogs around to point out to nissa. i know she saw the one near our tent for sure, it was sizable, and she may or may not have understood the fleeing frogs as we approached the pond's edge. i like to have her see one of her favorite animals in real life.
nissa enjoyed the company of our friends' dog, minnie. she's a super sweet lab mix that was a wonderful companion to nissa. nissa picked up from someone to say "minnie, where are you?" as minnie would roam around the campsite. this got shortened by nissa to "are you?" and she'd say this often for the rest of the weekend. oddly enough, once we got home, it changed from minnie to maki (maggie) her cousin. nissa's a big fan of maggie.
nissa "helped" play bags and had fun pulling her frolicking frog around. she even helped peter play guitar. peter was impressed that she'd point to the guitar (she knows that word, of course!) and would say "daddy" since she plays with daddy at home. nissa was a huge fan of peter. he'd lift up his sunglasses and scream "bah" and she'd giggle herself silly. it was so much fun to watch. really, everything peter did was hilarious to nissa.
we had dinner made from over the campfire- roasted hot dogs and foil-packet veggies. i didn't plan that well, so the veggies took forever and nissa was pretty dismissive of them when they were ready. of course she loved the hot dog and enjoyed 2 cheese sticks (one of which she may or may not have shared some with minnie). we tried to roast some marshmallows, but they weren't received well by nissa. maybe because it was late, who knows. all i know is i ended up a sticky mess with marshmallow everywhere; something i couldn't have gotten out of easily without some wonderful help. thank goodness again for these wonderful friends.
we went over to the shower house to brush teeth then were off to bed. we followed our night time routine for the most part and when it came for lights out, there was little argument. there were regular firecrackers going off, which nissa identified as "noise" each time. i knew she was out for the night when the "noise" comment stopped coming, which was only after a few minutes at the most. i think the pitch darkness helped nissa get to sleep quickly with out being too distracted with me there. it got tricky when she'd kinda wake up to reposition, but i would just lay her back down next to me and she was fine. she even slept soundly enough to let me slip out to answer nature's call. nissa woke up around 6 am and was ready to go, asking about minnie and everything. so we had some breakfast and walked over for a shower. this was the fist time we showered together and it worked out ok. nissa's not a big fan of the water, but she tolerated it enough to get the job done. we spent the rest of our time in the tent just relaxing until others at camp started waking up.
we enjoyed a wonderful second breakfast and then i started packing up to go home. we left shortly after noon and made incredible time. nissa slept the whole way home (took only 20 minutes to knock out), but was still a bit tired and i was exhausted. around 4 pm i laid her down for a nap. she didn't actually fall asleep until close to 6, but then astonishingly slept straight through 9 am the next day!
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