Spring Break Camping

We got back from camping yesterday.  I love going camping with the family though.  It gives us time to enjoy each other.  No TV, no internet and no phones.  Mr. Amazing works evenings and weekends so we don’t spend very much family time together with the girls getting home from school so late then having to do dinner and homework and since Kay is in the Gifted Program at school she has A LOT of homework.  

This is our second time camping.  The first time got screwed up by me and my gallbladder and by Mo having some breathing issues (we think it was because of the cool October night air.)  But the family enjoyed the 1 night we spent camping and were excited to try it again.  Kay was the most excited.  I swear she’s the perfect girl for me.  She wants to roll in the mud, play every sport imaginable, but she wants to do it all in a skirt.  Last time I tried to be really healthy.  I packed salad to go with dinner, healthy cereals and milk, and a bunch of healthy snack options.  This trip though I decided to excite my kids even more by telling them that they were going to be able to eat crap for 3 days.  But, I am the Fat Free Queen so I can’t COMPLETELY throw health and nutrition to the wind.  Breakfast was muffins and dry cereal.  For me it was Krusteaz fat free blueberry. 

My yummy muffin and the girls cereal 

Lunch was peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, fruit and pretzels and chips.  Dinner was the typical burgers and hot dogs for the kids and Mr. Amazing.  For me it was Portobello mushrooms with some fat free cheese. 

I also brought a ton of snacks.  I made trail mix, granola bars, and apple chips.  For dessert we, of course, had s’mores. 

My trail mix.  Dried blueberries, strawberries, cranberries, raisins, cherries and some sunflower seeds

The granola bars

The granola bars I made were REALLY awesome!  Next time I’m going to try using Nutella instead of regular peanut butter.  Or, I’ll use my chocolate PB2 so they’ll be low enough in fat for me to eat.  They were a bit thick so I think that I’d bake them in a 9x13 pan instead of the 8x8.  Here’s the recipe:

Approximate nutrition facts

2 ½ c oatmeal

¼ c sunflower seeds

¾ c mixed nuts; coarsely chopped (I used leftover almonds and hazelnuts that I had lying around)

1/3 c maple syrup (I used sugar free)

¼ c agave

1 c mixed dried fruit (I used strawberries, cherries, blueberries and cranberries)

1 c peanut butter (softened in the microwave)

1. Mix thoroughly 
2. Bake in and 8x8 lined with greased parchment paper
3. 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes
4. Cool, cut then refrigerate 

See all the chunks of stuff in them?  Packed with flavor!

We ended up leaving the house 2 hours after I had planned for us to leave.  We got to the campgrounds at 4:30.  We had to run to Wal-Mart for some last minute stuff.  We finally started setting up at about 6.  I took the girls for a short hike while Mr. Amazing made dinner.  We ate, made s’mores at let the kids run around the campsite until about 9.  They played in the tent for a while.  After realizing that there was no chance of them going to sleep on their own I decided to go to bed.  Oh, did I mention Mr. Amazing forgot to pack the sleeping bag?  Yeah, he totally did.  So we spent the night lying on the hard ground with just a semi-thick blanket between us and a crushed shell ground.  I ended up waking up every couple hours due to lack of blanket.  Did I also mention that we had 1 sheet between the 5 of us and Kay is a complete sheet hog?  The next morning I ended up waking up at 6 and Mr. Amazing woke up around 6:30.  While he was at the store getting coffee I did my morning exercise.  I found this workout at Girl Heroes  I also laid on the picnic table and did 50 sit-ups and 25 bicycles (with hiking boots on.)  Mr. Amazing still wasn’t back when I was done so I ran about 5 minutes worth of suicide drills between the fences of our site.  We went hiking after breakfast and then searched the park has a ton of options trail rides, canoe rentals and a spring that you can swim in.  But, because we had the dogs and we found we couldn’t do anything so we decided to pack up and drive home.  Next time, I’m putting my dogs in a kennel. 

                But all in all our camping trip was a success.  The girls had fun and we are still having family time at home so, it’s not a complete waste of time and money.     

Have you taken your kids camping?  How'd it go?