Memorial Day 2007

Summer has officially begun as we headed off for our first camping trip of the year. I had anticipated wet, yucky weather because I always believe our weather men and packed accordingly;) 6 Tshirts/3 pairs of pants/3 shorts/1 pair flipflops/2 pairs of tennis shoes and an assortment of other very important items like rain boots, sweat shirts & pants and PJ's. Overpacking? Yes, very much so. My husband finds my packing skills a little of the OCD side, but I have a plan to the madness.

After laying each article of clothing out on my bed to see what I did or did not have I was ready to put the items into my plastic storage bin. I followed the same procedure for Cooper & Wyatt and felt very organized as I tackled the overwhelming task of food packing. After a quick trip to WalMart I had enough food to last more than the four days we would be gone and loaded it up into a huge plastic grey tub along with two ice chest. This was all completed the day before we were leaving! Scary, isn't it? Tent camping cannot be taken lightly and you must have all you might need to make the weekend run as smoothly as possible.

Friday I send the husband and one child back to WalMart to find headphones so we could have a quiet 3 hour car ride down to the lake and so I could have uninterrupted packing time as I tried to fill every last crevice in my SUV. Brian had gotten up that morning to pack/stuff his duffel bag, as I shook my head at his dismissal to use a plastic tub. "This is lined with plastic." he rebuttals.

For once the weather men were right and it rained every. single. night. Did I mention we are in a tent? That leaks? Alot? Well, it does. My parents also joined in the adventure and lucky for us they had a trailer. I don't think I would like actual tent camping if I didn't have our parents to come along with us. I was able to use their bathroom and shower. I could send the boys inside to watch a movie. We could eat inside when the flies would not go away. That's right, we were 'roughing it.'

Even with all the rain we were able to have a fire. Cooper loved the fire and would go with my mom to collect as many sticks as he could and then toss them in one by one. It was a great time filler! Brian & my dad fished for four hours on Saturday and came back with three fish. Cooper was able to watch how to prepare fish to be eaten and he was impressed. He even expressed an interest in catching his own fish and then being able to cut them up to eat. He is a boy through and through!

The biggest life saver was the blow up pool that my parents brought. The boys would play for hours in there, until my sister showed up with Dayton(the dog)and he wanted to swim too. Wyatt was all for that, but Cooper did not want him in his pool. That night my sister & John took Wyatt home to spend the night. I was hoping we would be able to sleep in the next morning since Wyatt hadn't been feeling good. That night was the biggest downpour of the weekend. Cooper & Brian slept on the floor of the tent as I was able to have the entire blow up mattress to myself. They were soaked along with all the blankets and pillows. Surprise! Everything in the plastic containers were completely dry, but everything in Brian's plastic lined(!)duffel bag looked like it had been through the washer. The remainder of the morning and into the afternoon. it poured. My mom and I made a trip into town to find a laundromat to dry all Brain's clothes and the blankets and pillows. Thankfully it began to clear up and we decided to finish out the weekend.

Sunday Brian was able to find a boat that the boys could go on a ride with and he took them out a couple of hours. They had a blast and I did to as I laid on the bed in my parent's trailer and watch a movie. The boys were exhausted and went to sleep earlier than they did all weekend, so we had the evening to ourselves to enjoy the fire. We had a peaceful night with no rain and even woke up to a bright sunny day. I was glad we stuck it out because Sunday was the best day of the weekend.

We finally got home early Monday afternoon and as I was inside unpacking all the clothes I wanted to bring I looked outside to see what my husband was up to. Cleaning the 3rd garage! He has the weirdest energy boost as he spent the next two hours organizing that garage and getting everything back where it needs to be. The boys were in bed by 7:00 and I followed shortly after. It is good to be back home!