Sunday, June 14, 2009

Surprise - Happy Early Father's Day

I'm not great at surprises - in fact, I pretty much NEVER plan them because I usually spill the beans or mess something up. This year Heather and I decided to plan a surprise camping trip for our husbands. Kevin and Ryan had been talking about going this summer and the kids were asking too. I knew if we could pull it off, Kevin would be really surprised, because I don't camp often.

Heather and I decided on a weekend and a park. Norah and Savannah made books about camping for their dads. The last page said, "Surprise! We are going camping tomorrow!" Heather scanned in Savannah's book and posted it here . We had dinner on Wednesday night and the girls gave Kevin and Ryan their books.

The kids really did great! They were awake later than anticipated on Saturday night (that would be thanks to Lucy who was WIRED), but all in all they slept great. Daphne had a hard time falling asleep at night and didn't nap as much as she would have at home, but once she fell asleep at night - she slept all night! Because of the lack of naps, Daphne cried more than normal. Kevin actually thought she did fine.

We really didn't do a lot while we were camping. No hikes this year - I forgot the Baby Bjorn. The kids went swimming in a little water hole - totally grossed me out, but Kevin thought it was fine (I did make them take showers immediately following and again at bedtime! Ha!). The kids rode scooters around and basically just played together the whole weekend. There was a nice playground right in the middle of the campsites - perfect for us. The kids got along great - it amazes me that they pretty much never have any squabbles.The weather was INCREDIBLE and the park was very nice. We had great food and fun with the Morrisons!

The only issue we had (well, besides Lucy keeping her sisters awake on Saturday evening) was Norah waking up wheezing and coughing in the middle of the night on Saturday. Totally freaked us out. She hasn't needed any breathing treatments in almost a year, so totally forgot to even take the nebulizer. The more she coughed, the more she cried and the more she cried, the more she coughed. Nice. We were able to get her calmed down and got her to drink some water and she finally went back to sleep. Kevin and I didn't sleep very well because we kept checking on Norah. We decided we needed to head out as soon as we could pack up so she could get home and start her breathing treatments.

We were home by lunchtime and the girls rested in the afternoon. I think by now they have completely recovered from a lack of sleep and Norah is talking about the next camping trip (which Daphne and I may skip out on).


3 comments:

Sarah G said...

What a great surprise! It looks like everyone had a great time minus a few sleep issues. Those are bound to happen, I'm sure when in a new place. How fun!! All the kids look so cute in their little chairs by the fire pit.

Jackie said...

So glad you had fun. The pictures of the kids roasting marshmallows are cute. They should have been pretty good at it as often as we pretended to roast marshmallows in your basement. According to the pictures Heather M took, it looked like a beautiful park. I'm glad you left most of the tics at the park. Yuk!

Alison said...

Glad you guys had fun! Tell Norah that I would be happy to watch Daphne so that Mommy can go camping with her next time.