Roughin' It

OK, truth be told, it was far from roughin' it.  Though the guys did set up and sleep in a tent, they used air mattresses and the rest of us were quite comfortable. Two large, air conditioned campers with beds, full bathrooms, and kitchens makes camping not too much different from going to a cabin.  Especially when you go with Paw-Paw and Grammy who are quite experienced in the preparation, set-up, and whatever else goes into a smooth weekend in the great outdoors.

Before we left on our excursion several people gave me looks and comments that inferred "You must be insane!  Taking 5 little children camping?"  As I spent the entire day Thursday cleaning the camper and packing us up, I started to wonder if I was in fact a little nuts.  What were we getting ourselves in for?  I was either being exceptionally brave (at least in the eyes of others), or ridiculously naive.

What is camping without a campfire?  In the foreground, the girls were working on their own rock pile/fire ring.

As it turns out, I didn't need to be brave, and looking back can't really be called naive either.  Did we sit for longer than a 5 minutes at a shot?  Not before the kids were in bed!  But, it was a wonderful weekend (actually more than wonderful since we were able to go with my sister's family...since their youngest daughter had a transplant in March of '07 our time with them has been limited and sporadic at best) of being mostly out of doors.  The girls spent hours exploring the woods surrounding our camp sites.  We spent 2 afternoons at the pool cooling off (even thought it was one of the less humid and more comfortable weekends of the summer) and enjoyed walks and the playground as well.  Though we almost had a few casualties on the rocket slide.  I think the maintenance crew waxed it a few days before we came.

The adults spent time talking and laughing around the campfire late at night (too late) as well as playing multiple rounds (and I might at highly competitive rounds) of Ticket to Ride, our new favorite game.  The most difficult part of the trip was getting the girls (along with their cousins Mariah and Aliyah) to stop giggling long enough to eat a meal and keep them half decently clean.  The gray dust from the gravelly (this might be a new word, not sure) camp site made that quite a challenge.  The pool along with sink baths in Grammy's camper kitchen helped.  Thanks to Grammy, the Mommies even got to sleep in a bit with the youngest ones since 4 of the 7 girls slept in her camper.  Talk about extreme grandparenting!  Lucky for her, the big girls were only up early one morning.

So, would I go camping again with 5 Little Women?  Sure, but not without a camper or two and extra hands.  Did you know that many, maybe most, campgrounds now have cable hook-up?  Though we didn't take a TV and indulge in that modern convenience (note:  we've also come to discover that watching television doesn't fit in our day real well, nor is it extremely fulfilling), I have to admit that we did let 6 of the 7 mini campers (Sweet baby M was sleeping peacefully) watch a movie on Saturday night.  After 2 1/2 days of outdoor adventure they needed a bit of down time (and admittedly, so did we).

Over the last couple of years, I've come to accept that "vacation" as I knew it will not be the same for quite some time.  It is no longer about lying on the beach or lounging inside the cabin, napping and reading at my pleasure.  That happens occasionally.  And am I grateful when it does.  Now it is an opportunity to make memories for our children, memories they'll talk about when they are older.  Already the oldest Little Women are referring to "Camp" in their conversations and dreaming of when we can go back.  And so, we probably will.  My only regret from the weekend is that I failed to capture more images of our fantastic weekend at Eagles' Peak.