Camping

A few weeks ago, we decided to camp in the front yard.  Brenner has taken Cole out a couple of times and Cole has been asking about when the next time he was going to go camping.  I decided to surprise them one Friday night and camp in the yard.  

It needs to be said up front that I don't camp.  It is not because I do not like it or anything, it is just not something we ever do.  Brenner and I camped together about a decade ago with some friends and that was the last time that I have camped.  And at that time, I did nothing to help with the setting up process, except of course to ensure that we had lots of smores on hand.  So, to decide to set up a tent by myself, for the first time, when I did not remember how to set it up or even what the tent looked like was a crazy idea.  But, with Cole's help, we got the tent up in an hour (Brenner said it should have taken 10 minutes! Ha!) and we were really proud of ourselves.  

We all, including the dog, slept in the tent since it was plenty big.  We watched a movie first and then settled down for snuggles in sleeping bags.  The night went as well as I expected, some sleep, some time awake and uncomfortable on the ground.  We would have slept better if I had remembered to turn off the sprinklers so the tent would not get sprayed back and forth for 30 minutes at 1 am.  But everyone woke up bright and early thanks to the sun coming up before 6 am, with smiles on their faces and a great family experience in the books.

I am so glad that we did this, although I think I will wait for Brenner to come back before we camp again :)