We had such a great weekend together as a little family, on our first camping trip in four years (Jeff and I used to go multiple times a year), and Emerson’s first camping trip ever. Camping is a lot of work (with all the packing and the set-up and everything), but it’s also super fun, and nice to get away. We went to Topsail Hill Preserve State Park in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, and we were so excited when we got our first glimpse of the water on Friday afternoon!
And just a few yards into the state park, we were greeted by the little deer, just a few feet from the road! I unbuckled Emmie and pulled her into my lap, and she was so sweet and excited.
Then while Jeff and I put the tent together, this little girl sat in her chair having a snack, performing her supervisory role.
It took hourrrrs to get everything all set up and the fire going for dinner (we made sausages with potatoes and peppers), but this girl had the time of her life playing in the rocks and the dirt, and just running around barefoot. I used to always run around my Grandparents’ yard barefoot, and my Granddaddy called me “Yard Bird.” Jeff called Emmie Yard Bird while she was running around like that, and it was so perfect and fitting. (She ended up getting a little “sponge bath” in the bathroom sink later before bedtime, because she was literally an absolute mess.)
She stayed up wayyyyy past her bedtime, we got our nightgowns on together (mine had tiny little campers and said, “Happy Camper” and Emmie picked it out for me at Walmart with Daddy one day), and started getting ready for bed.
She was very excited about her own tiny air mattress, and a new unicorn sleeping bag. However, bedtime didn’t go so well. It was 11pm before her and I were both asleep (and Jeff stayed up a little later). But then she woke up again around 4am, scared and not wanting to sleep in her bed anymore. So we pulled her into our bed, and she tossed and turned and barely slept, and by 6am, she was ready to wake up.
So early Saturday morning, Jeff got up with her, and hung around the campsite for a bit, but she was very anxious to go to the beach. So he got her dressed and ready, and they were on their way by 6:40am! It was actually about a mile walk from the tent campsite to the beach, and Jeff said she walked the entire way. And she was just thrilled to finally play in the sand and surf!
Have you ever seen a cuter baby girl, more excited about seeing the water?! I could just eat her up!!!
She started walking back a little bit of the way, but quickly got tired, and Jeff ended up carrying her almost the whole mile back, and so of course he was exhausted by the time they finally got back to the tent, at only 8am.
They let me sleep in a little after they left, and I woke up around 7:30. I got up and got the fire & coals going, so that we could cook breakfast once they got back. I felt pretty proud of myself, since Jeff is usually the one to handle all the fire-related stuff, but I did it!
We kept it simple by toasting some bread, and then scrambling eggs, for some yummy egg & cheese breakfast sammies. It started sprinkling halfway through cooking, but luckily we had our popup tent above the picnic table, so were able to stay (mostly) dry to eat.
A few years back, we bought a set of Coleman camping dishes & silverware, but it’s been sitting in the box since then, and we were excited to bring it along this trip. It was so cute, and I loved having it. We also brought some bottles of Dunkin iced coffee in the cooler, and so we poured them into the cups, just so we could use the cups 🙂 The sandwiches were super good, and we all cleaned our plates. I made Emmie a half sandwich to start with, but she finished that quickly, and asked for another sandwich, which then then ate all of that too!
I also poured her a tiny bit of my coffee as a special camping treat, and she thought it was the best thing ever. It was the mocha flavored one, so it was basically just chocolate milk to her, and she chugged the stuff.
While we were eating, the sprinkles turned into POURING rain, and we could hear the thunder getting closer. We took shelter in our “regular” tent and tried to figure out what to do. We looked up the weather and radar, and it did NOT look good. We didn’t feel like it was a good idea to just sit in a thin “shelter” of plastic and carbon fiber poles… I said, “I wish we could fine one of those old-school cheap movie theaters to escape and keep dry.” Jeff started researching, and found one in Panama City, just an hour away, that was showing Monsters Inc for only $2! So we quickly got ready and packed up all our electronics and valuables, and made a run for it.
Like I said, the tickets were only $2, and they came with a small carnival-sized bag of popcorn for free! We bought a few drinks (and an extra bag of popcorn because it’s a family favorite), and only spent $20 total! What a deal! This was Emerson’s first trip to the movie theater, and she did so good! She sat through the entire thing, with only a little bit of wiggles (and one trip to the concession stand for that extra bag of popcorn), but she did so good!
But by the time the movie ended, it was already afternoon, and she was super tired, and fell asleep on the car ride back to the campsite.
But by the time we got back, the storm had cleared away, and it was nothing but beautiful blue skies! We slapped together a few PB&J’s, grabbed some snacks & our bathing suits, and caught the once-hourly tram ride down to the beach (so we didn’t have to walk a mile). Emerson could barely sit still long to eat her half PB&J, before she was just dying to play!
We played in the water, and played in the sand, and had the BEST time. Emmie was constantly squealing with delight, and just played so very hard. She loved every single minute of it. Even though we were down there for about two hours, she could have easily stayed all day. The girl is a beach baby for sure!
After the chaos of the morning storms and trying to get out of the campsite as fast as possible, stuff in the cooler shifted around too much, and the beef we had for hamburgers got pushed to the bottom and sat in a few inches of water all day, and was wayyy too waterlogged to actually cook. So we went to a nearby seafood restaurant, ordered Emmie a kids’ cheeseburger, and Jeff and I shared this giant platter full of all the things. We didn’t even finish this between the two of us!
But a camping trip is never complete without s’mores, so we went back to make a big fire after dinner. We set up all the fixin’s on the picnic table, and Daddy showed Emmie how to roast her marshmallow. It was a little too hot for her though, so he ended up doing it for her.
She was super excited to try her very first s’more, but ended up liking just the tiny little chocolate bars best instead.
We stayed up till about 10pm again, but she did much better sleeping the second night. After she fell asleep, I sat up in the chair reading for a bit, until I couldn’t hold my eyes open anymore either, and Jeff turned in not too long after I did.
Emmie slept till about 6:30 or 7am Sunday morning (just a bit later than yesterday), and was rarin’ to go as usual. Everything was wet outside that early in the morning, and we didn’t plan to cook anyways, so we just had some honeybuns in bed for breakfast, before we started packing up.
Again, it took hourrrrrs to get everything packed up and broken down and cleaned up, and loaded into the truck. (Oh yeah, we borrowed Dave’s truck for the weekend, so we would have plenty of cargo space, so big thanks for that!) Jeff and I took turns showering before we checked out of camp. We took the long way back towards Tally on our drive home, and found a good spot for lunch. We picked a pretty touristy, beach-side restaurant, and sat out on their open-air deck for some more seafood.
After some more shrimp for lunch, we went out onto the beach for a little while, to let Emerson play in the sand again one more time, and we all got our feet and legs wet in the ocean. It was a bright, sunny, gorgeous day, and we so wished we could have just hung out there for a few hours!
She picked out this little $5 ice cream truck toy (with a little girl inside, you just can’t see), at our trip to the Dollar General last night after dinner, and has been very attached to it since then. She took it out on the beach, and played with it in the car, and all night at the campsite.
I’m pretty sure she would have stayed out here forever if we would have let her, but it was good to get one last half-hour of salt air, sand and sunshine to end our trip. She also picked out a perfectly cute little shell to bring home, and I was so proud of her for that, since I’ve been a shell & rock collector since I was her age as well.
By the time we finally finished lunch and beach time, it was almost 3pm EST (we kept having to remind ourselves that the campsite & PCB was on Central time), and after an early morning, and a busy, tiring morning, followed by a big lunch & beach time, this girl was absolutely exhausted. She fell asleep in literally two minutes, and then slept the entire two-hour drive back, until we were in our driveway back in Tally.
We got home right at 5pm, and started the unloading and unpacking procedures. Emmie sat on the couch watching Mickey Mouse while Jeff and I did all the hard work. Since it stormed like crazy yesterday, and it was so dew-y this morning, the tents were both soaking wet. We had to pop them back up in the carport at home, so they could dry out. And then once they’re dry, we’ll pack them back up in their bags tomorrow. We also started up two loads of laundry, and returned the truck to PopPop at their house. We had cheeseburgers for dinner, and get Emmie all cleaned up in the bath before her bedtime. Even after a long car-nap, she was still super tired, and bedtime went pretty well. Jeff and I are of course exhausted ourselves, so I’m sure it won’t be too long until we’re in bed asleep as well!
We really had a great time this weekend (even with all the hard work and the chaos of the storm), and Emerson absolutely loved every minute of it. I asked what her favorite part was, and she said the beach. I asked if she liked the water or the sand more, and she said the sand. Then when Jeff asked her the same question a few minutes later, she said the water. I asked her what her second favorite part was, and she said, “the whole tent thing,” while waving her tiny hands in circles. She loved being outside so much, and getting dirty and playing in the rocks and sand and pine straw around the campsite. We asked if she wanted to go camping again, and she shouted, “YEEEEESSS!” So I guess we won’t be waiting another four years before our next camping trip!