Camping

This past weekend my family and I went tent camping along with some other families. Everyone was very excited about adventure except for me. For the last five years, Skip has taken the older children camping with a group of other fathers. I always gladly stayed home with the little ones. When this group invited us to come along and the thought of how much fun the fellowship would be I eagerly said YES! I really did not have an excuse this time because our youngest, Grant, will be four on Monday.

Over all, the fellowship was such a blessing and I loved spending time with these families. I wish I could say I LOVED camping or that I did it well. When we first got there the smell of the campfire brought back wonderful childhood memories. The temperature was perfect and the children were full of excitement and after 5 hours of running around and endless burnt marshmallows and chocolate (they skipped the graham crackers) they all crashed hard!

After a sweet time sitting around the quiet campfire with our friends, it was time for us to go to bed. I crawled into the tent for 8 and slid into my new sleeping bag atop the large blow up mattress. In that moment I could not take in enough of the sounds and fresh air, being surrounded with my precious children and wonderful husband. I praised God for the day and how the bright moon lit up the tent and the beautiful sound the wrestling of the trees made. Skip fell asleep fast. A little time went by and I was not falling asleep, more time went by and slowly I slipped into discouragement and dread because I could not fall asleep. Two hours went by and I was beginning to become more and more fearful, the wind picked up and I could not fall asleep and my heart began beating faster and faster. Every loud noise would startle me and as much as I tried to pray (which usually lulls me to sleep) the more awake and fearful I became. Afraid a tree would fall, afraid I would be too tired the next day, a child would drift off into the woods, spiders, snakes . . . It was not long and Grant began to cry. He joined me in my sleeping bag and we both drifted off to a shallow sleep and morning came very quickly.

We arrived home around 9:45 PM last night. It was fun and the children had a wonderful time and I did it! I made it ! I will enjoy it more next time and eventually I hope that by going again that I will eventually become a "camper". The other families we were with were "real campers" and I did learn a good bit from them.

After a 3 hour nap today, I am looking back more fondly on our adventure than I was last night at 10:30 as I pulled ticks off Amelia's tiny little body. Grant only had 5 and the other children did not have any. I am very perplexed by only the little ones having ticks. I enjoyed tucking my clean sweet little ones in bed late last night and we all slept peacefully.