Family Reunion

I attempted my first camping trip staying in an actual tent. I had not been in one since I was in elementary school and my parents had the bright idea of sticking four of us kids side by side sardine style for a night of unpeaceful sleep. Amy was able to stay in the camper because she was still a baby, but whatever. I remember my oldest brother waking up in a state of panic and jolting us all up by stomping on us because he was having a nightmare of spiders attacking him. Once we were settled and bandaged up we fell asleep only to be awakened a couple of hours later laying in water. Touching the sides was a "no-no" in tent lingo for when it rained it would leak inside. There was only so much room and we were definitely tent touching so we had water all around us. Needless to say, I don't like tent camping.

We sold our 5th wheel when we decided to build a house, thinking we would have something else whenever the October reunion came around. The boys went camping with my parents over Labor Day and tent camped and had a blast. Since our boys were older and Brian had buttered tent camping so well, I decided to give it another try.

Tents have come a long way and there are a lot of selections when we headed off to the Academy to find our home for the weekend. $200 later we had a tent, two twin car blow up beds, sleeping bags, a rolling ice chest and the ever popular staple of all camping trips . . . a bug zapper! Packing for the trip was a nightmare. I am an overplanner and I stress myself out thinking of all we would possibly need. I packed us all for a month and we were only going to be gone two nights. On top of getting ready for the trip(or any overnight trip)I also have the problem of wanting the house to be in tip-top shape, so upon the return from our trip we come home to a nice, clean house. Weird, I know. I cannot stop myself.

We decided to take two vehicles because of all the things I convinced Brian that we needed. We were the first to arrive and found a great spot and Brian set the tent up and the boys and I tried to stay away as much as possible. Once the tent was up my job started of setting up house and getting the tent not to look like a tent, but as a comfortable hotel room. I had our blow up mattress in the middle and each cute twin car blow up bed on each side. The two sides were "rooms" that could be closed off with a curtain. I cannot sleep without a box fan so there it sat in the corner of my hotel room(even with temperatures dropping into the 40's).

The first night I slept maybe 2 hours. It was the most uncomfortable night of my life. Did I mention how thin tents are? You can hear EVERYTHING outside of them and the people across from us were there to party. My brother actually went over to the huge group around 2 AM to tell them to quiet down. The boys were not sleeping well either. At one point I woke up from a dream that someone had cut the end of the tent and had taken Wyatt away. Jumping from my bed I opened the curtain to see Wyatt's bed completely empty. No child, no sleeping bag, nothing. As I stumbled over Brian(who didn't even move)to get to the bed I see that Wyatt had slide in his sleeping bag off the end of the bed and there he laid on the floor in a crumpled lump. As I placed my heart back in my chest I moved him to our bed. Cooper joined us a couple of hours later, as he told me his feet were freezing off. As the three boys slept soundly together I moved to the stupid purchase of the car twin bed as half my body hung on the floor. So far, not good.

The second night I had taken down the twin beds(thanks for the thingy, Jessica)and decided to let the boys take the double mattress and Brian and I would take the floor. Brian even found a heater and I must say it wasn't a bad night. I moved into the bed with the kids around 5 AM. We were all up by 7 AM and made it successfully all weekend.

I have not given up on tents, it wasn't so bad. The boys really had a good time and seem to enjoy it more than anything. It was also fun to see my sister and her husband and my brother's family living the tent life with us. It was a great bonding experience and this reunion was my favorite, by far!

Will I do it again? Maybe. I have a whole year ahead to decide!