We decided to take the kids camping during James' vacation a couple of weeks ago. We had to squeeze this adventure in between baseball practice and celebrating James' birthday with his family. Fortunately for us we live really close to a lake and a state park so we could have easily jumped in the car at any moment and make the 5 minute drive home.
I have to admit I have never thought of camping as much of a vacation. From the outside looking in it seemed that camping involved a whole lot of work for just a little bit of fun. However, my kids really wanted to sleep in a tent and the farmer practically grew up in tent so I figured it was worth a shot.
Much to my surpise I loved it! Yes, me, Sara Elizabeth Strader Isbell loved camping in a tent. We roasted marshmellows and made smores, we fished and caught one rope, we swam in the lake and we told lots of silly stories that kept us up much longer than we had intended. Don't get me wrong, it does involve a LARGE amount of creatures, most of which I never intended to see. However, it does NOT involve many other things.
I have made a list:
1. No cleaning bathrooms. State parks bathrooms are not bad and I was not responsible for cleaning them. (Thank you Kimberly for the tip about showering in swimsuits!)
2. No cleaning the kitchen....James took his new portable grill and in by then end of the trip I had only washed one pot.
3. No cleaning the floors. I just swept out the floor of the tent when I was done.
4. No doing laundry....see # 1 - Swimsuits clean and ready for the next day.
5. No bored children. They loved every minute of it.
6. No television, phone calls or technology of any kind.
7. No errands or going to five stores.
8. No figuring out what to cook for dinner - James took care of the cooking!
and my favorite...
9. No interuption to family time!
We had such a great time and are looking forward to doing it again...this time we will have a much larger lantern and more fans.
Ok - so it was luxury camping...electricity, running water, coffee in the morning....I am only so brave!
About Me
- Sara Isbell
- I have wanted to be a mother all my life. From childhood on I can recall pretending, imagining, reading and wondering about motherhood. My mother always told me that she loved being pregnant, that she always felt so great during pregnancy. And I have been wondering which part was so great? Was it the heartburn, or the hemorrhoids, or the insomnia, or headaches, or lets see what about the constipation, wetting your pants just a little when you laugh and sneeze, hair loss, weight gain, stretch marks, belly itching, vomiting, nausea, or the actual task of pushing something the size of a basketball out of a hole the size of a dime? Hmmm...I still can't figure it out. All I know is that I love it too. Now I am blessed with two of my own, Tucker (7) and Elizabeth (5). One day Tucker (my literal child) asked me where he was before he was born. I explained, "I carried you in my tummy until you were ready to come out and then the doctor helped get you out of my tummy so we could hold you and take care of you and you could grow to be a big boy". He thought about this for a long time. "Oh" he said, "then I just slid down and came out the shoot!"
2 comments:
Girrrrl, I count NM as camping. Serusly. Remember that one year there was a rat in the hard room? I mean, c'mon. And brushing our teeth at the spigot outside the door? Your a seasoned veteran, sans tent. But just b/c the boys hogged them all.
I am laughing at Adri. Truly that was some serious camping we were doing. It involved lots of work though. Cleaning, cooking, building things. Amazing that it hold some of the best memories for me!
Glad you had a good time Sara. Burritos and camping. There is no telling what is next for you. Next thing I know you are going to drop down in the middle of a mall floor and roll around on it with all the germs and everything. Ok...maybe that is going a bit far.
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