After Becca's nap and lunch we drove all around town trying to find a replacement pole (the ones we had previously ordered took 3 weeks to arrive and we are doing REAL camping in a week so I couldn't wait that long). We couldn't find a long enough pole, but I did find replacement parts so I had to settle for rebuilding the pole from scratch.
At first I couldn't get the metal connector off because it was glued on and after my neighbour Ryan watched me trying to pull it off for about 10 minutes he offered to help. After WD-40, vice grips and tin snips he got it off. I headed back to the back yard to start threading a new length of shock cord through the sections and realized that was going to be pretty much impossible. I was quite frustrated, but at least I understood the physics of how it all worked now. Just before giving up I had an epiphany. I realized that if I took two sections off of the long new pole then it was the right length. So I pulled the shock cord out - cut it and tied a new knot at the shorter length and voila! D'uh - I felt so stupid- it took 15 seconds and I could have done that without all the effort Ryan and I put into the other one...oh well - it all worked out and I didn't tell Ryan I didn't use the part he worked on for me :)
About 7pm - after Big Brother and Becca was in bed - we headed outside and started a fire in our fire pit. It took a bit of work due to the breeze, but eventually we got it going. We used the barbeque to make our hotdogs and had a nice dinner outside which Dean joined us for. Dean went inside to enjoy his evening to himself while Bella and I stayed out and told spooky stories around the fire. We didn't put much wood on it because we really only wanted coals so we let it dye down and we got some great coals for marshmallows. Bella didn't like how the smoke was blowing towards her so I ended up roasting hers, which was probably for the best. Dean snuck back out now that we were having treats, but went back in when we were finished.
We headed into the tent and got our beds all set up. I had gotten a new queen sized air mattress to replace one with a hole and two twin air mattress which were on a great sale and I knew we would eventually need. Bella slept on a small one while I took the big one. First we made shadow puppets on the wall and then we told a few more stories before going to sleep. We both drifted off quite quickly. I was cold during the night, but Bella was snug and warm.
Dean came out before leaving for work to have me turn on the baby monitor I had in with me. By 8:10 Becca was awake, but Isabella was still sleeping. I tried waking her up but she was zonked. I reluctantly left her alone in the tent while I went in to get Becca. Around 8:45 I saw Bella coming out of the tent and I was pleased to find that she was happy and not angry I had left her alone. We all had a nice breakfast of oatmeal to warm me up - although Bella only had about 5 bites and Becca pushed hers all out with her tongue.
We had a great night and I'm almost tempted to leave the tent up and do it again tonight!
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