Love/hate relationship

Camping. I love the whole idea of it. The sounds, the smells, the simplified way of spending time without technology around. Growing up, my mom always took us camping without my dad. He was usually on a business trip at the time or just busy with work. Sometimes we would go and meet him wherever he was working and camp there to be able to see him more. In any case, I now realize what a brave soul my mom was to take so many little kids camping by herself! I also loved attending girls camp. A few days of being outdoors, eating great food, with all of my friends-- how could it get any better?

As a kid, it was pure fun. As an adult, it is pure torture! I keep forgetting that little tidbit, until the next time I get the itch to go and Chris tries to talk me out of it. Ok, it isn't that bad, but close.

Before I had kids, Chris and I went camping together a couple of times. It was ok, but we always talked about going when we had better equipment etc. Although, I was pregnant with Conner and didn't feel all that great anyway. After the kids started arriving, we went sporadically, but it wasn't ever that fun. There was the time the little ones slept in the trailer with Grandma and Grandpa, and Chris and I were sleeping by the fire. It was romantic, until the skunks came into camp in the middle of the night and scared us half to death. Ha, great memories.

We haven't been camping since the twins were almost one, and we attended the ward campout in Las Vegas. Not a great time to try camping anyway, but we thought we could do it. It ended up being unseasonably cold for October in the mountains, and the wind blew hard all night long. Needless to say the twins didn't sleep well, and neither did Susanna.

I suppose my memory isn't the greatest, because in spite of it all I keep wanting to try it again. The childhood memories get to me, and every time I see one of those Coleman commercials I want to go camping. So this year, when Chris asked me what I wanted for my birthday I told him I wanted to go camping. He looked at me and asked if I was serious. I said yes, too excited to notice the ghost of camping past whispering in my ear that it might not be a great idea. I figured the twins are 2.5 now, plenty old right? It seems like I know lots of people with younger babies that go camping, but then they might be the ones with the huge 5th wheel trailers too...

We packed up in record time and were out the door by 5 pm Thursday night. On the way out of town it started to rain. Oh, no biggie we can handle a little drizzle. By the time we got up to the beautiful campground 48 miles south of us it was still raining. The dirt road for the last 16 miles of it was pure mud. I was getting a little nervous. When we got there, I was still somewhat optimistic about staying. Chris wasn't. We walked around, kind of hoping it would stop and kind of hoping it wouldn't. The kids were crushed. Conner and Bryce were crying. I was more than a little bummed, all that work packing, planning and buying food to go. Finally, I told Chris we had better go. Sitting in a tent with six kids, waiting for the rain to stop just so they could play in the mud wasn't too appealing. So we drove home. We went to bed, leaving the cars packed, just in case.

The next morning we looked at the weather and decided to brave it up the mountain again. This time, it was blue and clear but with a 50% chance of rain showers in the afternoon. We bought a big tarp to hang up, and brought rain jackets just to be prepared. Getting up there was heaven. It was beautiful and green and quiet. We found a great spot, lots of room for our cars and our tent. It had a nice picnic table, and bathroom options- but no water. No problem, we brought enough- or so I thought. Setting up was nice and smooth. The kids explored around, and then settled on playing in the dirt. Earthworms were a constant source of entertainment a majority of the 24 hours we were there.

Things were going well, I thought. Chris started stressing out from the moment we got there. Someone is going to fall in the fire, or rip the tent, or get mud all over the car, or... you name it. Don't get me wrong, our kids are pretty well behaved as far as kids go. They are just kids, that is the problem. Constantly worrying about those things that kids do, is not something I think about when I envision camping.

In spite of the constant dirt, and trying to keep them out of the fire and the road, things were going well. And then it was bedtime. We started trying to settle them down at about 9 pm. I took the twins in the tent to lay by them. All they wanted to do was jump on the sleeping bags and play with the zippers. Finally, Chris decided to go to bed too so they would stay in the tent. We read stories and tried to calm everyone down. At about 10:30 we were exhausted and barely hanging on. The twins grew quiet and I passed out.

Exactly 10 minutes later, Alex woke up coughing and crying. I got him awake enough to swallow some medicine and back to bed. I started dozing again, trying to get comfortable on the hard ground when Susanna started crying. She had wet the bed and it wasn't even midnight yet! We changed her, settled her in and fell asleep again. Then Alex woke up coughing again. He would sit straight up and scream at the top of his lungs. He is fun like that. I calmed him down and started to doze. Then Susanna woke up asking me why we only had 2 chairs there. Um, what? I, probably too sharply, told her to lay down and go to sleep. She started to wail. Chris got up and attended to her.

This went on all night long. I had no watch to tell time, but I had some serious thoughts about packing it up and heading home with screaming Alex more than once. Only the hour and a half drive over dirt roads stopped me. Then, just before sunrise Susanna was up again, cold and shivering. She had wet the bed again! She never does this! I believe her problems stemmed from: 1. Being in a strange place. 2. A serious fear of falling in the toilet at the outhouse. 3. Not knowing how to squat. As soon as we had gone to the outhouse and back and got her into bed, the others were waking up. Oh have mercy on me.

Any thoughts of staying another day had gone with the night. I was ready to pack it up and head home before breakfast! But, we didn't. We took a nice little drive (4 wheeling always makes Chris happy) and saw a bunch of deer along the way. We went back and had pancakes on our poorly washed dishes, thanks to me not planning for no water well enough. I hope no one gets sick. Between all the earth worms, the outhouse and who knows what else I think it will be a blessing if no one does.

Now, we are home with all of the comforts of life. A shower, plenty of hot water, a nice bed and a washing machine. It is nice, but just not the same. I still feel a bit meloncholy about leaving, but then I wonder exactly how crazy I am. Through it all I am struck by two things. I am really amazed at what my mom did for us and I hope that I can continue to do it for my kids. I came away with some amazing memories, and I know that is the most important thing of all. Making memories. Yeah, it is a lot of work but so is anything else worth doing. That said, I think we will wait until next summer to make any more memories.