We Went Camping!

We went camping this past weekend at Malaekahana State Park. It was so much fun. This was Talula's first time camping, and she held up like a champ.

Before I recap the whole camping trip, I should say that I have not been posting much because I have had my hands full with Talula and planning our move and all sorts of other things, mostly involving excessive paperwork.

We haven't been doing much, as far as schooly-stuff. Tania is just not having it. I try to gently ask her if she wants to do any math or grammar, and the answer is always, "No!" I think she needs some time to reconnect with herself. I think that traditional public school is very hard on a child. She's sort of gone back to being more childlike since we quit "The Plan." So anyway, the only planned activities that we have really been doing lately are bike rides, beach trips, library visits, and farmer's market night. Other than that, we've just been lounging, cleaning, and relaxing.

But back to camping...

We spent all day Friday packing and prepping to go out there. We were using a tent that we found in my parents' garage, so we had to set it up to make sure it actually worked. We finally started driving out around 4:00 p.m. About 30 minutes into the trip, when we had reached Kualoa, Talula started screaming, so we pulled over. I had put a disposable diaper on her and planned to use disposables the whole trip, because I didn't really want to lug 25-or-so dirty diapers home with me. But they weren't exactly holding up --- she had poop coming up the front of the diaper. So I changed her, boobed her, and we were off. We had to pull over again because Talula started screaming again about 5 minutes later. I boobed her and then stayed in the back seat with her. She finally went to sleep. We got to Malaekahana at around 5:30 p.m.

Joey started to set up the tent. It took a couple of hours, a lot of rope, and half a roll of duct tape, but he got the job done. It basically looked like a homeless tent with a big tarp over it.

The first night was great. We barbecued steak, chicken, corn, zucchini, and asparagus, and drank beer. We roasted marshmallows and made smores. It rained while we slept, but we didn't get wet. Talula slept like a little angel, waking up once to boob and then passing back out. Tania and her friend Bella had their own little tent.

In the morning, we ate fruit, eggs, and turkey bacon. It was a sunny day and we played at the beach. Right before we had left to go camping, I got my new favorite thing in the mail --- my water sling. Since we were having a diaper crisis, I just let Talula go naked in the water sling all day long and used the cloth diapers at nighttime. Every time she would poop, we'd go shower off. The campsite has a solar-powered shower. I just wore my swimsuit all day.

There were man-o-war washing in with the waves, so I couldn't take Talula in the ocean. Tania went swimming though. She's brave. We saw these weird little blue creatures that washed up on the beach. They sort of looked like dragonfish, but they were blue and about a half-inch in size. When they washed up on the beach, they just looked like little blue globs of goo, but if you put them in a bucket of water, they fluttered and swam around. I tried to find a picture of them on the internet, or even find out what they are, but I haven't had any luck.

The rest of the trip was awesome, except for the last night. It freaking poured rain and the winds were a million miles per hour. It was ridiculous, and our tent could not handle. Talula and I went to sleep with Tania. We left as soon as we could after the sun came up.

Since we've been home, Talula has been totally cranky. I think she really likes being outside all day. She calms down when we go outside. She gets sort of pissed and cranky if we don't go anywhere during the day. When we go outside, she has this incredulous look on her face. She stares at everything for awhile and then passes out.