tis the camping season

I love camping, and I think there is no better adventure you can do with your kids. Its so much fun to watch them explore everything, watch the birds, and just be in wonder at the fabulousness of nature.
Plus, camping is all about low quality parenting.
Marshmallows for dinner? Absolutely! We’re camping. You want to eat more dirt? Go ahead! We’re camping. Nap? I don’t even know what that word means! We’re camping. Eat vegetables? I will hear of no such thing! We’re camping.
Steve commented that he hadn’t realized how much I had cut back on processed foods* until this past weekend and it was so plentiful (not only did I stock up on appropriate junk food, so did my inlaws! We were in high fructose corn syrup, trans-fat heaven). I think it’s going to take us a week to detox. I had three Cokes over the course of the weekend – what is that, the equivalent of 25 meals? They were gooooood.
Callum requested to be put to bed every night. I have no idea what that says about us as parents, but hey, if the kid doesn’t want to sit by the fire and make a s’more, ok-dokey. More for me. Claire even went down relatively easy (for Claire) and slept (mostly) through the night.
We got the dinghy out this trip and took the family for a float. Claire slept while Callum dictated where Steve should paddle, mostly back to the beach so he could catch another frog. I think the frog was the highlight of Callum’s trip.

Claire was all over the water, and you had to be on your toes because she’d walk right in, and keep on walking.

We have a two-week family camping trip (in a tent!) planned for the end of June and beginning of July that I am really looking forward to. The first week is a Family Reunion for Steve’s family (well, an impromptu family reunion I think, one of his nephews is graduating from high school and his parents are throwing a party but we’re all going to be there, so it’s like a family reunion). The second week we’re meeting up with Michelle and her family for a week of camping that I am super excited about. I am desperately hoping the movie in my head isn’t expecting too much out of our kids but I have this vision of them just loving every minute of it. Family bbqs, and hikes, floating on the dinghy in the lake, ice cream, afternoon naps with a little happy beverage for Michelle and I while we read our novels and discuss the plots….
Good Times. And we haven’t even left yet .
*we still eat processed foods, of course (cereal, ground round, crackers, and treats as we see fit) but on the whole we have been slowly, very slowly, trying to eat mostly whole food. Another post.