Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Brave? Or Just Plain Crazy?

Kevin and I used to be avid campers. Okay... maybe avid is an overstatement. We did LOVE to camp as a family. But that was before kids. Since then, Kevin has been camping for hunting trips and such, but I've stayed behind, glad to have a whole house to spread out with the kids and not have to worry about keeping little ones out of a fire pit. How did those cave women do it?

Every year my friends (with kids around the same ages) have asked if we'd go. They're much braver than I and seem to have a good time. But I've remained the weenie - until now.

For some unknown reason (maybe because Natalie is potty trained [YES!] or because there's another family with a kid Liam's age going) I've decided to take the plunge and sleep in a tent with a 9 mos old and 2.5 year old because "Doesnt that just sound like so much fun?" "Wont this be the start of so many fun family memories?" and "You'll enjoy it once you get there!".

Since making the decision to go, though, we found a pop-up camper that we liked on Craigslist (my favorite site!) and we'll be taking it with us. Kevin's especially excited as it will be a nice upgrade to cold tent camping he does during hunting season (the camper has heating AND air conditioning!). While this might seem like it would be a huge relief... I'm not sure I'm feeling it yet.

Lately, Liam's been waking up at 5am in the morning and just chatting away for two hours until we get up. Might be interesting in the close quarters of a camper. He's also kicked his second nap the past couple days. I'd like to attribute this to teething (he's been very, very fussy) and am really hopeful that it's a temporary thing.

In preparing for the trip this morning I hit up the local Wal-mart Supercenter, determined to get a bit of one-stop shopping done. Liam ended up having a breakdown in the middle of the trip needing to be held the ENTIRE time. Imagine this with a 2 1/2 yr old itching to get out of a cart that is packed TO THE BRIM with supplies and plenty of cold stuff thawing out. I believe I was sweating from pulling the cart around the store too.

Then Natalie started commenting (rather loudly) about all of the "yucky people". I swear I've never said anything of the like for her to repeat... I'm not sure what struck her eye about the Walmart clientele. Perhaps she's seen this site. She's very interested in expressing what she likes and doesn't like these days.) Let's see, I dropped my phone on the floor AND really had to go the bathroom the entire hour and a half that I was there too (but what can one do with a cart full of stuff and at least one cart-bound kid?).

After all the unpacking and arranging back at home, I'm still short a few things on my list and still have laundry to do to get us ready to go - not to mention all of the packing.

So, at this point... I'm convinced I'll be enjoying myself once I make it to the campsite, put the kids in bed, put up my feet and make myself a cold drink.

Let the countdown begin!

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