Survived A Camping Weekend

I am not an outdoor person.  I consider a stay "rustic" if there's no attached restaurant and spa.  So I've been recovering from a weekend of camping with Nathan's Beaver colony.  To be fair, I did refuse to actually sleep overnight at the campsite, but it was still a long day which had us leaving the house at 6:50 in the morning and not home until almost 10 at night.

Nathan did very well.  He had 3 meltdowns throughout the day.  Two because someone accidentally bumped into him and one because he didn't get his turn before the game switched.  He cried and wanted to go home but didn't hit anyone, which is an improvement.

For both of them, I let him take a break from the activities.  I insisted that we stay on, reminding him that sad feelings can be "tricky" when they try to make you believe that there will be no more fun.

There was a lot of walking (a 2.5 km hike to and from where we parked the car plus walking around a major provincial camp site).  Since we weren't staying overnight, we had to carry all of our gear with us throughout the day.  Or rather, I had to carry it, since Nathan was busy with the Beavers most of the time.

I did do one thing which I think helped the day go smoothly (aside from frequent snacks and water breaks).  On our way to the campsite, I pointed out various landmarks on the trek (bridge, camp store, signs) and told Nathan to remember them for the walk back.  It helped when he was tired and grumpy on the way back.  I'd warned him that I wasn't going to carry him but that we could take breaks whenever he wanted.  Because I could point out where we were in the trail, he was able to accept it better.  (We're at the camp store, so we're near the bridge, which is near the car.)

The Scouts were exceptionally well organized, managing hundreds of kids at various levels and keeping them all fed, moving and interested.  Well done to them.