The Great Outdoors

In an effort to fill our last days of summer with memories, we went tent camping as a family for the first time last night. We packed our smores and hot dogs, borrowed a tent from our friends and set up camp at the 'Cheapskate Park' located ten feet behind our house.

In the picture you'll notice the circle of dead grass where the park's above ground pool was this summer. Our park even had wild animals walking about as you can see the small black bear (Liberty) snooping around the deck.

I know we didn't travel far, but we saved a lot on gas. Even though we were in the backyard, we still had trees, a bonfire and sleeping bags. I even lit some tiki torches for some 'Survivor' ambiance. Lady Di and I were hoping it would cool off a little since our tent was sitting in the sun and quite warm. The kids had their own two person tent and were excited to start camping.

I got the bonfire going and we started to roast hot dogs. When that was done Lady Di and kids asked, "What's next?"

"I don't know. I guess we just sit around the fire until dark. Camping, right?"

We watched the fire until dark and then headed inside our tent to watch a movie on the portable DVD player. Just like our pioneer ancestors.

When the movie ended, the kids got into their tent and we went to sleep in ours. I woke up about an hour later with frozen ears and nose. The temp had dipped down around sixty degrees and we only had one blanket because it was so warm before. As I went into the house for another blanket, I checked on the kids. Their little pup tent was toasty and both were snoring in their sleeping bags. When I stumbled back into our tent, Lady Di said that our dog, Liberty, was shivering in her bed so she snuggled between us under the covers.

Let's just say the rest of the night went better for the kids than for Lady Di and me. Inflatable mattresses are not very helpful to my back. Thankfully, around six AM, Sweet Pea woke up and said she had to use the bathroom. So I walked her into the house, making sure to carry my pillow with me. When she was done I asked her (tried to convince her) if she wanted to sleep in her room until breakfast time. She looked at me with a bewildered (what are you talking about) look and said, "No. I want to go back to the tent."

Groan.

I went back upstairs to get my pillow to follow her out, but on my way to the back door, Number One Son and Lady Di were coming in the house to announce that camping was done. Both kids whined a little but didn't fight too much and got into their beds for another hour. Aside from the sleeping arrangements, I did have some fun. The campfire was nice and I got to see stars in the night sky at 1am. The kids had fun sleeping outside and actually did some playing and reading in their tent most of the afternoon.

Even though we didn't really rough it too much, it was enough for Lady Di and myself. I'm sure we could have prepared a little better, but we didn't think we had to in our own yard. Lesson learned I guess. We know that we need a little more room in the tent for all of us and we need to pack warmer clothes, even in August. I think we will probably try this again but we will definitely include a few more comfort items next time. (blankets, TV, fridge, X-Box)

Roughing It

Last weekend we went on our first family camping trip. Some friends of ours invited us to go camping with them, so we thought it would be safe to go with someone who knew what they were doing.

Lady Di was in charge of the packing. Since she is more prepared than a Boy Scout, she made sure we had everything plus two kitchen sinks. We loaded up an RV we borrowed from our other friends and hit the road.
Fifteen minutes later, we were at the campsite. Did I mention the campsite was very close to our home. Just in case we had forgotten a necessity or two. I didn't want to be stranded in the wilderness without a proper DVD to watch.

We arrived at the campsite ahead of our friends, so we set up our camp. Lady Di unpacked the food, set up chairs, and brought out bags of art supplies and games for the kids. I think she even chopped some firewood and chased a grizzly away. The kids and I hopped on our bikes and raced to the lake. Sweet Pea wiped out on her bike two minutes into our stay. Two band aids later and we were racing down the bike path to the lake. Lake Independence has a long sandy beach. The kids and I had fun throwing stones into the lake. I tried to teach the kids to skip stones. The kids were more interested in finding the largest rock to make the largest splash. We then found the playground and the kids played on a zip-cord. The zip-cord had a cable connecting two platforms with a hand grip which rolled along the cable from platform to platform. Like something you would use in an action movie when the hero throws a sock on each side of a rope and slides down to safety from a burning building.
We biked back to the campsite where Lady Di had the RV ready and snacks out. The kids then played in the woods while I put up a tent. This tent was new to me and I was just as surprised as Lady Di when I finished and it actually looked like a tent and didn't collapse immediately.

Our friends showed up later that afternoon and we had a cook out and bonfire complete with smores. And nobody got a flaming marshmallow stick in the eye. We all retired to our campers to get some sleep for all of the swimming we were going to do the next day.

The next morning brought a light mist with it. It was overcast and cold. The kids played in the woods and found enough mud to cover themselves from top to bottom. After a couple hours I went into the trees to call the kids back for lunch. They all came back except Number One Son. He wasn't in the trees anymore. He was in another campsite posing for a picture with six or seven other kids. He had made some friends and their parents were taking a group picture with him in it. I asked if they had an extra kid and they said, "Take your pick."

After lunch, the rain really started to pour. I thought to myself, "What would survivorman do if he were stuck in the middle of Minnesota, in the rain, with nothing but a fully stocked RV?" I guess he would grab some snacks and play cribbage until the rain stopped.

Since it was raining cats and dogs, the Moms decided to do some of their 'camping' at the local Target store. "We'll be right back.", we heard over the squealing of mini-van tires. I didn't know tires could squeal in mud. The Dads were left with four young campers with sugar highs and cramped quarters. A short five hours later the Moms returned. To their credit, they did drop their Target bags immediately to free the Dads from the stake that the kids had tied them to. It was lucky that the firewood at our feet was still wet from the rain.

Well, the rain did not stop all day. It continued into Sunday as well. We cut our camping trip a little short due to the weather, packed up, and went to Perkins for brunch.

Swimming in the lake kinda got rained out but we still had fun. The kids got to do art projects and watch movies. They got to explore the woods and went on leaf and pine cone hunts. We got to relax, eat and visit. Plus we got to sleep in a rockin' camper. For some reason, even every day things are always better in a camper. We would like to thank our friends for inviting us. We also want to thank our other friends for the RV loan. In spite of the weather, it was a great weekend to celebrate Lady Di's recent achievement. Stay tuned for more on that.

So to sum up, I would highly suggest camping to anyone who is interested in getting back to nature and roughing it. All you have to do is:

1. Get a camper

2. Plug in your portable DVD player

3. Go to Target to shop

4. Go to Perkins for brunch.

That is all there is to camping. It's not so hard. I don't know why people think camping is so tough.

This was the 'grizzly' that kept us up all night. (snoring)