The Backyard Campout
Just for fun, I put up the tent last week. My original idea was to occupy the girls so I could get a few things done around the yard.
Within 2 minutes of entering the tent, they launched into making plans for tonight's awesome campout.
It snowballed from there.
All I could think of was being uncomfortable, cramped together with my girls in sweaty sleeping bags, getting no sleep.
What's wrong with me? As a teenager, I voluntarily, HAPPILY went with my dad on wilderness camping trips in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness of Minnesota/Canada.
We would load all our stuff into canoes, then head out for a week straight of wilderness living. We paddled across entire lakes, and between lakes we could choose to heft packs that weighed 50 lbs. or more over rough terrain or carry canoes on our heads. We did this over and over again until we reached our campsite. Sometimes we base-camped for the week, but one year I begged my dad to go on a "chain" in solo canoes, to boot. That's when you bust your tail end to get to a certain lake by nightfall, then spend the whole week pushing as hard as you can every day to camp on a different lake each night, thereby completing the "chain" by the end of the week.
Whew, I was a very different person back then. And much better rested, apparently. And in better shape.
What is my deal? I would be in the back yard. With a bathroom close by. If they decided camping wasn't for them, we'd just troop back inside. No big deal.
It could be FUN!!
I admit to wanting my hubby to camp outside with them instead, but it is only a 4-man tent. When translated, this equals 2 people + their stuff.
Because we didn't have any bags, we could squeeeeeeze 3 of us in the tent for the night. There was no way my 6' 2" hubby would've fit in there with the girls.
I decided to make the best of things because the girls really, really, really wanted to do this!
Also motivating was the fact that, despite multiple requests to try camping last summer, we never got around to it. I couldn't possibly let 2 summers go by without a backyard campout I had promised!
So I did it. First, I showed them how to put the tent up, well, sort of. The tent had experienced some technical difficulties when it was used last summer. We tried to fix the broken pole with duct tape.
Don't you love duct tape? It's so handy!
The "fixed" area was a little hard to get through the tent's casings, but we prevailed.
Ah - good! Now the tent was up. It looked a little smashed on one side and leaned to the left quite noticeably. In fact, the bottom of the tent was up in the air on the left side. That's about par for the course for us. We don't strive for perfect.
After dinner, we came back out to get things ready for our night of fun and found our tentflat on the ground.
This would not do.
My good hubby put the air mattress, providing some stability to the structure, and I reinforced the poles by tying them differently at the top. It was still leaning to one side, but I had a little more faith that it would stay upright, as long as we didn't experience strong winds during the night.
We toasted marshmallows in the indoor wood stove (because outdoor fires must be approved by the local fire gurus and we didn't do that because our campout was so spontaneous), then ate them all up.
Nothing like a snack of toasted sugar on a stick to calm the kiddos before bed.
We marched out to the tent, unzipped the door, and snuggled down into our sleeping bags. We talked and giggled for a little while, then the girls fell sound asleep.
I listened to the crickets cricking for a long time. I looked into the faces of my sweet, sleeping children.
And before I knew it, it was morning. The tent was covered with dew, and my tousle-headed girls unzipped the tent door and exited to watch their morning t.v. shows in the living room.
I happily went back to sleep for another 3 hours.
(Note: For best results, plan a campouts when you can sleep in!!!)
Comments
Post a Comment