SAMBAL's adventures: more holiday camping!!

After coming home from a week of camping at the beach, we decided to head off again with some school friends so therefore we only had enough time to clean the clothes, restock the food boxed and head off for a couple of nights to go camping in the bush. The kids were so excited about going camping AGAIN, Mum though, not so much!! BUT we all had a great time and Mummy is glad we went after all - sort of! The location was gorgeous, the company - well you couldn't fault it, the weather - COLD. We have never been this cold EVER camping before. Mummy, Daddy and baby Matthew had been camping with Uncle G and Aunty Cath to Girraween years ago and we ALL thought that was cold but nothing compares to what we experienced these holidays. The days were beautiful. We all went for some lovely bushwalks, the kids played in the little streams, we saw a gorgeous koala and some kangaroos, we played some cricket, football, soccer..... and did lots of chatting. Again the days were beautiful. Once the sun started to go down everything changed. The cold set in!! The nights were so cold and because there were fire bans everywhere we could not heat up around the fire before bed. Usually when we go camping we all sit around the fire getting toastie and warm and then we head off to bed so tired because we have had full days and talked too much. Well this holiday we all headed off to bed because it was too too too cold to sit outside and talk. Being inside the tent was not much better even when you wear your thermal top and pants, your long sleeve shirt with your tracksuit pants and jumper THEN your all-in-one pj's and your beanie. Nothing we did kept us warm. After the first night we all laughed and joked about it in the morning and tried to come up with some new strategies for the next night - for example putting on some socks on, wearing two shirts instead of one, drinking something warm right before bed. BUT disaster struck the second night.....Mummy forgot to put the girls nappies on -ARGH. How did Mummy find out??? Well Lucy decided to climb up to Mummy and Daddy to help get warm and as Mummy was pulling Lucy up I realised her PJ's were wet - again ARGH!! That is when it dawned on me that I forgot to put the girls nappies on. I did try to blame Daddy but he quickly reminded me that I dressed the girls and put them to bed so it was not his fault. Well what did Mummy do now that she realised that BOTH girls were completely wet - sleeping bags and clothes - what all good mothers do - the girls had to sleep in their wet clothes. Why you ask?? Remember our new strategy for the second night? sleep with all your clothes on except the outfit for the next day!! Mummy really did not have any other choice. So Lucy slept right next to Mummy to keep warm and Annie did not even realise she was wet so I was not going to wake her to let her know. This night was the second most longest night of Mummy's life (the first being another camping holiday where BJ was teething, Daddy was snoring VERY loud and Mummy was very cold trying to comfort a 6 month old who wanted to breastfeed ALL night!) Anyway Mummy was very glad to see the sun the next morning so Daddy got up, dressed the girls in their last outfit, put them in the morning sun to try and keep them warm while Mummy tried to get a little sleep. Needless to say we were very eager to pack up and go home.

BJ on a suspension bridge