The Fun of Camping???

When Steve and I first got married, one of the main gifts we were registered for was camping supplies. We were soo excited to get back to nature (although we'd never visited or left nature in the first place). Our first camping trip was at the worst campground in America. To make matters worse, it was 100 degrees. We put up our little two man tent and thought "ok, now what?". Our neighbors had a huge RV and after a few minutes they came walking up with a fan and offered to let us use it. I remember thinking... what do we need that for? Well, by the time the sun had set and darkness fell, it was still 100 degrees. The use of that fan was one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for us. Over the next few years our camping supplies became much more elaborate (including our very own fan, oscillating no less). We also became so high and mighty that no AIR mattress was good enough for us. We actually took a real twin mattress with us to sleep on. We giggle now thinking how funny we must have looked with this mattress strapped to the top of our van as we pulled into the campground, but we slept great (this was back in the day when Steve and I could cuddle comfortably on a TWIN mattress. The days before two twin pregnancies left me needing to cuddle a huge body pillow instead of my beloved. Once you go body pillow there's no going back.)

After the kids came, we decided to start camping in real luxury and bought a camper (real luxury includes a potty, well that says it all) which has been the greatest thing.

A few weeks ago, our Church camp out was announced. Imagine my horror when I was told that we were "pioneer" camping and we wouldn't be able to take the camper. Once I recovered from the news, I dusted off the old camping supplies and got down to the business of preparing. Let me tell you that we were the envy of the campground. Our tent was one of the biggest, our built- in awning was one of the only ones and our pop-up bathroom tent was the hit of the event. All was looking great... until the rain came. It was truly a humbling experience to enter our tent after several hours of rain and realize there was in inch of water covering everything. Our pillows were wet, our sleeping bags were wet, our clothes were wet. No one else who had a little tent had any leakage. Luckily the boys had made arrangements to bunk with a buddy. Luckily I was inspired to pack an extra little tent "Just in case someone might need it". We put this up for the girls to have a dry spot and went and sat by the fire to dry out. Someone broke out the fun game of "Scruples" which I had never played before. Once the game got started I realized it was pretty amusing playing this game with a bunch of moral Mormons. Finally at midnight, Steve and I crawled into our soggy sleeping quarters and hit the hay (well, we would have and should have hit the hay if I had let my husband put down a layer of pine straw under our tent. I talked him out of it because it sounded icky to me. Yes dear, you were right) I drifted off to sleep to only be awoken by a baby who wasn't very happy to not be in his crib. He cried for about an hour and I felt very sad for him and his tent mates. After drifting off again, the girls decided to be early birds and woke up at 5:30 am. I really didn't mind because I was dying to get out of the tent and have the night be over. After packing up and arriving back home we transformed our yard into a graveyard of dead, wet pillows and sleeping bags and shoes and clothes. My only solace is that I have a whole 364 more days before I hear the announcement from the pulpit again "It's time for our Ward Camp Out"... that would be a good idea for a movie "The Ward Camp Out, a night of fear and misery... parental discretion advised".

McKay was having a meltdown before breakfast. Notice Steve looks bright eyed and bushy tailed. I thought this picture summed up our trip marvelously.