First Family Camping Trip

Last summer B bought a tent that would fit our entire family plus extra room, so we could go camping.  We had plans to camp back in November, but a thunder storm caused us to cancel.  So we made plans to camp in May at Brazos Bend State Park

on a Friday night, May 20th.  Our kids had an early release day so we left our house at 2:00 and checked in.

W had his last Tball game that night so we would eat dinner out after his ball game, but we would eat s'mores over the campfire after getting back to the camp site.  When we checked in and got settled, B set up the tent while the kids just walked around and explored the woods.  We were pretty far from the bathrooms so it took about 20 minutes to make a bathroom trip.  After the tent was set up, we drove around to the look out points to try and look for alligators.

We were unsuccessful and figured we might try again in the morning but it was time to head into town for W's t-ball game.  His last game was a lot of fun and after it was over, we stopped by the house to let Cooper out and grabbed an extension cord and then headed back to our camp site.  When we got back to our site, I noticed that the cooler lid was up and I just figured we had left it open.  Once we got closer and parked, I realize that a raccoon was in our cooler trying to take our food.  Bryce put the van in park and chased the racoon away and came back with our pack of chocolate bars that the racoon tried to take.  Fortunately it was still sealed closed and the racoon dropped it and B was able to it back.  The racoon kept coming back trying to get back in our cooler so the kids were on look out all night.  R worried about the racoon and finally I told her just to stand watch with her flashlight and let B know when the racoon was back.  We had berries and eggs inside our cooler but fortunately the racoon didn't try and take any of that. 

For some weird reason, he tried to take our chocolate bars.  B worked on getting the fire started and the kids watched out for the racoon.  Once the first was started, we made s'mores and enjoyed the fire before heading to bed at 10:30.  All four kids were covered in bug spray, sweat, and dirt but they didn't care because they were so tired.  None of us showered and none of us cared.  We had to wake up and head out by 9:00 am because A had his last soccer game Saturday morning.  Before we left Brazos Bend, B took the tent down, the kids played in the woods, and we had s'mores for breakfast.  All in all it was a fun camping trip and made for a funny story about the racoon.  The racoon stressed R out and she couldn't sit and relax knowing that he would keep coming back.  Finally B started shooting rocks at him using the Pocket Shot that Marcus gave him.  I'm not sure if B actually hit the racoon or if it just scared him, but he finally stopped coming around.  We put the cooler in the van and didn't leave anything outside to attract other critters to our site.  This was our first outdoor camping trip but it certainly won't be our last.  We had a great time camping.