Campfires and Starry Nights

Due to Barry's deployments and summer camps with the military he has grown to dislike anything about living outdoors--he's no longer enthralled with the idea, or practice of, camping. Yet, he knew that the kids would probably love it.

As for me, I fondly remember camping as a child and I wanted those memories for my children as well.

At the beginning of every summer we talk that this is the year we're going to take the kids camping. Through the years we've accumulated a few camping supplies, but we haven't actually gather them together, put them in the truck and go camping. It was late in the summer, (actually a few days before the season officially changed to autumn), but
we finally made good on that promise and went.

Connor could be a pyromaniac. The boy loves to play with fire. We didn't even have the truck unloaded or the tent up before he begged us to start the campfire. Once we gave him the go-ahead, he did a fairly good job. With just a few pointers from Dad, he soon had a fire ready for us to cook our hot dog lunch over and then we were off to play in the creek.......

The creek waters trickled in it's bed of rocks....it was disappointing and the kids grumbled a bit at first, but they soon recovered--ingenuity kicked in and they decided to build a dam. It still didn't garner a great amount of water but, they did have fun.

Cailin showing off the dam they built and Liam sporting a happy muddy bum!

Connor took over the fire duties once again. We prepared tin foil dinners. If you were lucky enough to get one with the potatoes fully cooked it was great....if not, well they were still good, just a bit crunchy. Delaney thoroughly enjoyed hers--she was particularly excited to be out doors, she had been talking of this trip for quite a while with her friends, so she could have had a crunchy tinfoil dinner and we would have never known.

I think the best part for me was the chance to relax and not deal with the normal routine of school, cooking, cleaning and appointments. Barry and I got to discussed and solved a few of our logistical problems of life.--amazing what a night of fresh air (or maybe it was the campfire smoke) can do to help clear my troubled mind.

Cailin became our 'water fetcher'. She cleverly devised a way to use her backpack to carry the empty milk jug to hold the water as she rode her bike back and forth from the water spigot to our camp site.


(Cailin is speaking) One thing before I start to write about the camping trip- I took the picture of Brianne. OK...my over all opinion is it was fun. Yes, I was the official water fetcher or whatever Mom called it. I liked to ride my bike up to the part of the creek where it would at least go to your ankles. It was a very dry creek. One part of the trail, aka, dirt road, I would ride had a hill that if you were walking up it you would notice it, but not really care. If you were driving, you wouldn't notice at all, but on a bike.....it made my legs feel like jello. Weird thing was, when I was going back to the camp site, I felt like I had more energy. Strange....

Now back to Mom--

Night time wasn't incident free, but it wasn't terrible. For sleeping arrangements, the older boys slept outside of the tent. Ryan shut himself away in the van, (Cheater), Connor roughed it out on a cot, under the stars. The rest of us were part of a lightly structured free for all in the tent floor. I have to give it to Brianne, that little warmth sponge would follow you anywhere in order to snuggle. I woke up thinking about my time in the military. The thought that if you wake up after sleeping on the ground, and feel like you've been thrown down a flight of steps, it must be a success. Over all, we'll go again (even Barry said he enjoyed the outing). Now I wish we had more time before cold weather comes....maybe we'll get lucky and have a warm November and we can go again this year.