Sutton's First Campout

We've discussed taking Sutton camping for the past year, and have even scheduled trips...but we always decided last minute that it wasn't a good idea since he's still so little. My biggest worry was that he wouldn't sleep in such close quarters with us (he's never been one to sleep in our bed or even our room since he was a newborn).

But we finally decided that we would try it out for Spring Break last week. We chose to go to Lake Afton since it's only about 30-40 minutes away from home and we decided to just stay for one night. Kind of ease into it.

It was a success!

Adam went out during Sutton's nap on Tuesday to set everything up. I was anxiously waiting for Sutton to wake up so we could go join Adam, and of course Sutton chose that day to take an extra long nap. I ended up waking him up, but he was more than excited when I told him it was finally time to go camping.

When we got to the camp site, he was really excited to set up our beds.



We ended up taking his pack-n-play and setting it up in the tent because we figured he'd sleep better in there than on the ground. Here was our setup:

We took Sutton on his first kayak ride. The water was perfectly smooth when we started, and it was really peaceful and fun!

Then we came back to camp and built a fire to warm up and start making dinner.

Weston and Shae and baby Hunter came for dinner. We all ate hot dogs and chips, and then Weston introduced us to the awesomeness that is a Pudgypie. Two slices of buttered bread with pie filling in between, toasted over the fire. So yummy.

They also saved the day when they showed up with ketchup, which we'd forgotten. Any mama of a little kid out there knows how important ketchup is, especially on hot dogs. :)

Hunter started getting fussy as it got colder that evening, so they headed out, and then Adam and Sutton went for another kayak ride.

They found a little playground, so we made a trip over there to let Sutton play and to use the nearby facilities. Then back to the fire where I tried to make Sutton a toasted marshmallow, but while I was busy trying to get them perfectly brown, I turned around to find him up to his elbows in marshmallows straight from the bag. He preferred those to the toasted ones.

We let Sutton stay up a little past his normal bedtime, but decided that when he went to bed, we would too. So we retired to the tent pretty early, and I took the above photo of the beautiful sunset before we zipped it up.

We hung out in the tent awhile, playing and eating Gushers (a Dreher family camping staple) and drinking pop and apple juice. Adam has a propane-powered heater that he'd turned on to warm the tent. We made Sutton's bed super cozy with lots of blankets and tucked him in. But the novelty of us sleeping right next to him was too much. He kept giggling and standing up to look at us. We ignored him and he eventually settled down and went to sleep.

Halfway through the night, we woke up to put more propane in the heater, and saw that he had moved all the blankets into a corner, and he'd curled up in a ball at the end of his bed that was by the heater. Poor little guy. Adam said he also saw Sutton standing up and staring at us in the middle of the night for awhile.

When we woke up in the morning, Sutton was super excited:

He told us he hadn't been cold in the night, but his bed was cold. Whatever that means. I guess the floor of the bed was cold where the blankets had been moved off? Anyway, we made it through the night, so we consider it a success.

We loaded everything up that morning and took a walk by the dam. The dam there is basically just a big concrete slab, but when we started walking on it, Sutton said breathlessly, "Mommy? This is amazing." It was really cute. He had fun climbing around and trying to go up hills all by himself. After our walk, we drove back home to start the pile of laundry that always accumulates on camping trips, no matter how short.

The Clarks Came to Wichita

I'm going to go the lazy route on this one and just link to the post Rachael made about their weekend trip down here for the first weekend of Spring Break. Click here to see her post.

But here's one of my favorite photos from the weekend:

Rowan was sitting in my lap and we were reading books. When Sutton saw that, I think he got a little jealous and had to be a part of the moment. The more the merrier! :)

Rowan + Sutton

If betrothal was still a thing, well...I might have to insist these two get married in 20 years. :) For now, I'll just be happy that they love each other.

Thanks for visiting this weekend, Rachael & Matt. We love you and miss you and your baby girl!

March Insta 1

One Friday morning, Sutton and I had to stop at Petco to get some crickets for Adam's class's pet Draco. Sutton always loves looking at the fishies when we go. We also looked at the gerbils, hamsters, and guinea pigs. There was a goofy bird who was dancing and made Sutton laugh harder than I've seen him laugh in awhile. I took a video on Vine. Do you have Vine?



The first weekend in March, Adam left to go down to Texas for a fly-in. So Sutton, Diesel, and I went and had dinner at my parents and then spent the night there. Grandma Nancy had the great idea to use watercolors on a big paper. Sutton liked it.



Meanwhile, Diesel and Papa Bruce hung out on the couch. My dad is/was having lots of back pain due to his sciatic nerve, so he was pretty much down for the count.



Sutton was playing with some of my old dolls and rocked one of them to sleep and sang her the ABCs.

The next night Daddy was still gone, so Sutton and I went out to eat at Cinnamon's Deli (I love that place and Adam doesn't, so I always go there when he's gone). It took him a few tries to get a good thumbs up picture.

After dinner, we went to Target because I had a gift card burning a hole in my pocket. I got several shirts and a pair of shoes. Our real mission was to get some comfy black shoes for me to shoot weddings in, but I found those at Payless. Anyway, at Target, Sutton likes riding in this kind of cart the best.

One night after Daddy was home, we couldn't agree on a place to eat dinner. So we got take out from these two. I'm a Panera girl, and Adam loves Pei-Wei.

Sutton made us "pizza" during his bath one night.

 This is one of Sutton's favorite silly faces to make. But he just looks so confused. :)

I took dinner to Luis & Val one evening last week, and got some cuddle time in with Izzy.

She's such a sweetie, but she definitely started crying for Mama as we were taking this picture. :)

Sometimes Sutton just zones out while he's watching a show on the computer. So weird. He's really into the Tutitu videos on youtube right now.

One morning I needed to photograph a couple albums out in my studio, so Sutton came with me and wanted to have his picture taken too. :)

On our weekly Thursday-night date. He's got a fake smile he can turn on and off in an instant. The lady eating next to us kept telling Sutton how handsome he was and that she couldn't believe he was only 2!

For a Throwback Thursday, I posted this photo of me holding my baby cousin back in 2003. She's 10 now. And I'm a lot more comfortable holding babies now. :)

The fort that Mommy built.

The better fort that Daddy built.





One nice-ish day, I left the back door open so Sutton could go in and out to play. He went in the backyard to throw his airplane around for while. He kept having to make sure I was watching through the window.

Playing in big boy underwear. Ain't no thang. But we went through two pairs in about an hour, ha. I did get him to pee on the potty, so it was a tiny success! We haven't done it again since.



Still playing in real undies.

Reading some books and cuddling with Mommy before bed one evening.

This was the Sunday of Daylight Savings Time. He was being very dramatic and wanted to fall asleep in the car so bad. He finally did...like this. For about 2 seconds. Then we woke him up so he would nap at home later. Poor guy.

Doing what they do.

A crazy boy after a crazy timeout-filled morning.

Daddy and Sutton laying in bed, discussing deep thoughts together.

Standoff.

The other morning, I had two bags of trash to take out, plus I was carrying some other things to the car. Sutton insisted on helping, but the bag was too heavy for him to pick up, so he dragged it to the outside trash for me. Little stud muffin.

Some prints came yesterday! I have big plans for a photo wall in our living room, but we have to sell our piano first to make room and we're dragging our feet on that. Anyone want a piano? :)



Sutton loves our Jeep. He talks about it all the time and if you ask him what his favorite car is, he'll say red Jeeps. He's gonna drive a red Jeep when he gets big. Yesterday, he wanted to "drive" it, so we let him sit in the drivers seat, and he played in there for a good 20 minutes. He would look through his "noculars" to see where we needed to go (the hospital, the Y, QuikTrip), and then he would drive us there. Then he'd climb in the back seat and tell me the Jeep needed something. What did it need, Sutton? A new battery, Mommy!



My hands get freezing while I edit photos here in my office, so I pulled out the cute fingerless gloves Ginger got me for photo shoots. They worked like a charm!

Outtakes

Jaclyn and I had a little fun at the last wedding we photographed. :)