countdown to camping!!

We just returned from a week long camping trip in Missouri! Prior to leaving, actually 9 days before leaving, Blaine and I began a countdown to camping. It was so much fun for him, and even me to see how excited he was to do it and for camping. He is 3, almost 4, and absolutely LOVES to camp. If the subject of camping even comes up in a conversation with someone he will ask to go and he means right then and there. A little over a week before this trip he was asking when we were going. When I told him 10 days I knew by his sad face that he had no idea what that meant so I asked if he wanted to do a little countdown and he said excitedly, "YES!"
So that is what we did. Instead of a typical countdown where you take things off, we made a camping scene, adding things we enjoy while camping.

Day 1: the first tent!
he also colored green over the "Roaring River, here we come" as the grass under our tent

Day 2: the second tent!
one tent for our family and one for The DeVaughans!

Day 3: The sun!!

Day 6: the hammock (with a stick person inside, per Blaine's request!)
Ryan had the camera for a few days so days 4 and 5 were each a tree for the hammock and Blaine informed me that it was HIM that I "drew" in the hammock.
He was coloring the sky too on that day.

Day 7: the logs for the fire!
so close to day 9!!

Day 8: the fire!

as a side-note, he asked every.single.day to glue the car on.

AND FINALLY,
Day 9: he added a picture of our car!

It was so much fun and it made the wait a lot more enjoyable for our 3 year old!

I hope to have our camping trip post up soon. There are nearly 400 pictures for me to sort through and Brandon has a week-long final baseball tournament out of town this week.