....another Davis Adventure

For those of you that have known us for awhile you will know that we have a knack for interesting adventures. From getting attacked by a rouge donkey after canoeing 7 miles down a stream without water, to getting lost, dehydrated and almost walking off a cliff while backpacking the Grand Canyon, we seem to have more than our share of interesting adventures. This latest adventure while not as thrilling as others is a typical Davis adventure. I hope you all enjoy our most recent adventure.

For Brandee's birthday we decided to go to the beach and camp at Edisto SP in South Carolina for an extended weekend. The trip started off on a fairly good note. I got off work early and made it home with enough time to pack up and leave at a leisurely pace. I tried packing the car but there was too much stuff, so I unpacked everything and took a second try at it packing as carefully as I could. To my surprise it all seemed to fit rather well the second time (I’m an awesome packer, or so I thought). We were in a hurry after my slow packing so we hit the road as soon as I shut the trunk. After about an hour Brandee realized that we forgot Avery’s headphones. No big deal, we always forget something and if headphones are the thing that we forgot this time, we can deal with that. The whole family was able to listen to a Charlie Brown movie turned up way too loud.

When we got to the hotel Brandee asked for the pack of diapers. I paused, thinking, I remember packing them the first time but then I took them out and set them in the stroller with something else…….Hmmmm…….what else did I forget to put back into the car? I remember thinking I shouldn’t put these in the stroller, I will forget them. Brandee then asked for the wipes. WIPES!? I can’t find them either, maybe that was the other thing. We got by on our diaper bag supplies that night

The next day we had to backtrack to get diapers and wipes so our 1.5 hr trip to the beach was now 3 hrs. No sweat, we had all day. The sun was hiding behind a thick layer of clouds and the wind was strong and cold but we were hopeful that it would be warmer and sunnier at the beach.

Fast forward to the campsite. We couldn’t reserve a beach site so we reserved one just off the beach. Except it was really just off of a swamp. When we pulled in it was sort of like a scary movie set. Spanish moss hung off the big trees that encompassed our site and the swamp came right up to the edge of our campsite which in my mind gave the gators easy access to our tent at night.

We start unpacking and I’m mentally going through our checklist. Tent, check, food, check, bed, check, sleeping bags………..”Hey Brandee have you seen the sleeping bags”………..THAT’S THE OTHER THING I PUT IN THE STROLLER!!! Well this sucks, no sleeping bags. I’m thinking we pack up and go to a hotel, but Brandee says “lets see what we can do” We set everything up, play at the beach, eat dinner and generally have a good time. Now, time for bed. Two problems, the airbed is only big enough for Brandee and Avery and we don’t have sleeping bags. It is now in the upper 40’s and our assortment of blankets isn’t looking too promising but we think we have it figured out. We ended up using a couple of blankets and a picnic tablecloth. I wore all of the clothes I brought, wrapped myself in our hammock and slept on two suitcases next to the airbed so that we could sandwich Avery with our body heat. The night went surprisingly well. Avery, Alia, and Brandee were all warm enough. I stayed fairly warm but kept falling in between the suitcases and the bed. All in all, it went surprisingly good considering the circumstances.

Morning! Yes, we can get up and warm up. I had it all figured out while shivering in the corner of the tent. I grabbed the kids and dashed to the van. Started it up, cranked the heat, took all the seats out and grabbed all of our food. We all basically sat in the warm van, ate and played for most of the morning. By now the sun was out and we headed to the beach. We had a great day playing on the beach, although it was too cold to swim. We of course got a little geocaching in where Avery found the weirdest toy. He played with for it for the remainder of the trip. He named the toy pink make-up. It was a pink characther of somesort with only one arm.

How can you not have fun at the beach!

Alia staying warm peeking.

Alia took a nap in the pack and play in the van so Avery and I bundled up and played at the park. I am holding pink make-up.

Alia got tired out from our full day and fell asleep in the hammock.

On the way back I picked up a space heater with a grin and decided that we would beat the cold this night. Our sites had power and the bathrooms had hot showers so after the beach we got some dinner and hit the showers. I took Avery and Brandee took Alia. Alia had a blast in the hot water. Brandee filled up our wash basin and used it for Alia's tub.

I got the kids ready for bed and quickly plugged the heater in. I laughed as soon as it turned on. It was a radiant heater, a detail I overlooked at the store. Which I guess basically means a halogen light boxed up as a heater. It was like the rising sun inside our tent. Yes it was bright but it was warm so we crawled into bed and went to sleep with our tent aglow. Avery woke up at 2:00 am thinking it was morning, and shortly after that Alia thought it was morning too. After deciding that cold was better then awake kids at 2:00 am we turned our blazing sun off and went to bed. I'm sure we could be heard throughout the campground because both kids were crying loudly.

The next morning we repeated our warm van breakfast and packed up and came home. Lessons learned this trip.

-Always double check the house, garage, and anywhere else you might have stuff before leaving.

-Kids are tougher than adults. We were secretly complaining, but the kids never noticed and had a blast the whole time.

-Keep a positive attitude and everything will usually be fine.

Here is my incriminating photo of what I left behind.