After having Ava (and knowing we want more children), we decided that we wanted to be purposeful about spending one on one time with each of them.
One of the ways we decided to do that was to spend a night (or weekend) away with just one of the kids around the time of their birthday each year.
When this guy turned four this fall, we decided a camping trip would be the perfect way to hang with him.  After a morning soccer game, we packed up, dropped Ava off with my parents, and set up camp just down the road from them on their land.
Grayson had never been before, and we just knew he’d love it.  Keep in mind that we had zero intention of sleeping in a tent.  I know, I know, that’s half the fun, but with that kid’s allergies, there’s no way we’d make it. 
Borrowing my parent’s camper, we hung outside by the fire, but had the joy of falling asleep watching Beauty and the Beast inside. 

We explored and hiked,

and just enjoyed spending time with him.  And listening to him.
  I was convicted a while back that I should spend time each day

really listening to him.  I spend so much time instructing and teaching, and I don’t want all that time to go by and never really see him or listen as he talks about pirate ships and knights, rockets and  stories of adventure. 
Each of my kiddos deserve some time each day that I’m really seeing them.  It was SO much fun to have 24 hours of time to devote to only him and fun with him.

On our exploration, we found some pretty poppies,

and couldn’t resist picking a few to take to our campsite.

We carved pumpkins, and while the chili cooked in the crockpot,

we gathered way too much fire wood,

built the best (and most over-the-top) campfire ever, roasted marshmallows, and knew that we were the coolest. parents. ever.

And this pretty much sums up his feelings about all of it.
Maybe we’ll try the beach next year.
🙂