Camping with the Kiddos Part 1

To begin my life at the beginning of my life, I was born…crazy. Then I had parents that were crazy, too. That explains a lot of things. So when you read some of this and ask, “WHY????” I will refer you to the first line of this post.

*Ahem*…So, I heard about this shindig that the Reeds had been invited to a few weeks ago. I had very little interest in going, partly because I didn’t think they were going and partly because I was high on trying to figure out a backpacking trip to the Catskills for our family and I didn’t want to “waste” the one trip Brandon would take on a “mere” car camping trip. (I will pause here to explain that “car” camping just refers to the idea that you take all of your gear in your car directly to the site you are to camp at and stay there. It involves no hiking, backpacking or canoeing, etc. to get to your camping location. Some of our dear friends refer to this activity with scorn in their voices and call it “cramping”.) Later I found out that the Reeds were in fact going and that it sounded like it could be a lot of fun. First of all, a couple that they know were throwing this camping get together and had just invited a bunch of people they knew, so it wasn’t as though the Reeds knew everyone, but there were about 80 people planning to attend.

I think suddenly this was exciting to me because it was a chance to get to know some new people and step outside of Fairwood life for a bit. Now, I love Fairwood and love being here, but I do wish sometimes that I got out a bit more than I do. So this was my chance and being the plan ahead, organized person that I am, I decided Friday at lunch time that I would go camping for the weekend and needed to be ready to leave by 4pm. Well, I didn’t quite make it and the good news was that the Reeds weren’t ready then either so, I had some wiggle room. As far as Brandon staying, he had just traveled the weekend before, doesn’t really relax by camping with little children, and absoutely doesn’t relax by meeting new people and being in an extremely social environment for 72 hours straight. So he stayed at home with Joseph and I was more than happy to go it alone with the 4 older kids. They were so excited and I knew that if I could just get there, I would have plently of wonderful people around to help me and make the weekend pleasant for all of us.

So, I packed and planned while the kids watched a movie…or two and was ready to go when the Reeds wanted to leave. We stoped at the grocery store for a few last minute items (the dinners were a combined effort for the entire group and we needed to contribute some things) and then we were off by 7:30. We arrived in Orford, NH, aside the Conn. River around 9:30pm. Just in time to pitch our tent, say hello in the dark and head to bed. The kids immediately had to go to the bathroom and I made the first mistake of the weekend and let them go on the far side of the van because they couldn’t hold it long enough to make it to the bath house. This was a bad habit to begin for the weekend I later discovered.

Our family had one tent for the five of us and we all had plenty of sleeping space. That tent has been through some great times in our family starting with our honeymoon which was a camping trip. Anyway, the three boys had one end and Rachel and I took the other end with a little walking space in between. We all had Therm-a-Rests to sleep on, so it was as comfortable as it could get for camping. The temperature than night was in the mid 40’s and that made it perfect for sleeping. A good snuggling down temp, not to cold to stay awake, but not so hot that you don’t want to be in your sleeping bag. The kids slept like rocks and I stayed awake most of the night. (The first half I was praying because Jeff and Fritha were at the hospital with Fritha in labor expecting my new little niece, Dani. The second half I couldn’t sleep because Jeff called, said she had been born and I was too excited to sleep after that.)

The children rose at 5:45am and were actually not the first ones up! But they were raring to go, so go we did.


To be continued…

Now I’m going to sleep in hopes that I can finish this saga tomorrow.