We're back!! I know, the decision was made so suddenly that most of you never knew I had left! My sister decided that we should go camping since my hubby had Friday thru Sunday off, and what a wonderful decision it was!!
Camping used to play a major part in my life, that is until I married a virtual couch potato! (hehe) Then we were so busy making kids (LOL) that we didn't have the money or time to take the trip...and until this Christmas, we didn't even have a tent!! I had lent my "3 man" mini-tent (from my bachelorette days) out to some old friends of ours, but it never made it back home; the couple and tiehir friend got into a major wreck on the way back from their trip and my tent was permenantly trapped in their trunk...forever :(
So...we packed up the back of my sis's truck and our car four kids included and headed 15 minutes up the road to one of the many state parks here in Texas...On the way there, it started pouring down rain, even though the forcast called for partly cloudy skies...
Though some of our things were getting pretty soaked, this only made me more excited!! Mother Nature was just breaking us in! :) NOTHING can spoil a camping trip for me, not rain, not infected mosquitoes...not even the mile hike we had to take to get to the swimming hole, absolutely nothing can get under my skin while enjoying the great outdoors!! I love camping, and we had much to celebrate as my eldest son starts Kindergarten tomorrow!
It stopped raining before we got to the camp's main headquarters, but I had a sneaking suspition that it was following us. As soon as we paid for our site and park fees, it started sprinkling, and by the time we had picked out a site, complete with water and electricity :D We couldn't wait, so as the rain began to pour again, we pulled out the tent, and with the super team of three, we had our 8 man, two room tent up in no time!
My sister took the three older boys, who were happily playing in the summer shower to cleean off in the nearby restroom, while my hubby stripped and washed our youngest son and set him loose in the tent I had just mopped (LOL)! I had already set up the back room, so our 14 month old was quite content exploring the tent as I continued to unpack and my hubby got out of his wet clothes.
By the time my sister came back with the squeaky-clean trio, Mike (my hubby) and I were cozy and dry, and unpacked in the back room and the kiddos sleeping bags were lined up like duck-beds-in-a-row, leaving the other side of the room for my sister's bedding.
The rain soon ceased, as quickly as it began, and the generous sun helped quickly dry the foliage. The ground quickly soaked up all of the rain water and we were free to go for an afternoon hike. I am always suprised by the beauty of the Big Thicket. Every season brings so much beauty, but timeless is the inviting pleasure of the evergreen canopies and nubby knolls that surround the creekside trails, blanketed by amber pine needles.
Walking with three adventurous children must be one of the most wonderful experiences in the world!! I could tell them that a tree hollow was a home for tree trolls and that nubby knoll was a troll's podium and they believed in the mystical majesties I painted for them. We found fairie toadstools and elfe trails; they even swung on vines like Tarzan!
The silence and fresh after-rain smell was so refreshing, invigorating that my sister and I were transported back to our own Big Thicket camping experiences from when we were children. We shared our own experiences with the children as we watched the creek flowing through the spider-like Cypress roots. Ferns dotted the path, I wanted to walk forever!
After we got back to camp, we gathered wood (shh, don't tell!), and started our first fire. We also set out our mosquito coils and Citronella candle to ward off any sickly skeeters! My sister pulled out the hamburger meat and after the grill was nice and hot, she placed several patties over the damp, but burning wood. She then took to preparing the tomatoes and bread while I tended the grill and Mike tended the children.
The hamburgers were wonderful and we chased them with ooey-gooey delicious S'mores. After washing down the boys a final time, we put them to bed for the night and chilled around the campfire, listening to tunes and telling stories. Around 12am we also retreated for bed. What a wonderful first day!
Upon waking up to the chiming voices of our excited children, we all crawled out of the tent, a little sore from sleeping on the ground, and sluggishly downed some cream cheese danishes. Afterwards, when our eyes finally agreed to stay open, I decided to take the older three for a walk. They chose to go down the same trail as yesterday by leading the way! I just love their excitement and amazement by the natural wonders. We spotted banana spiders, toads and horse flies, but nary during the whole trip did we find a snake or mammal. I guess our little alarmists warning shooed even the birds away before we acually got to the creatures' resting spots.
My sister wanted me to go with her to the local grocers upon returning from our walk, so we took my baby and left Mike with the older three. We already needed more ice as ours all but melted over night. Mike had complained so much that morning about having to sleep on the ground that my sister bought him a float to sleep on Saturday night. (awww, how nice ;) Well, he threw it on our candle (accidently ;) and it melted a hole in it!!
She went back to try and get a replacement, and I started the fire for our Ravioli luncheon. My fire was blazing and it took no longer to cook the raviolis on the grill than it did for me to do it in a pot at home! It was nice to have a warm filling meal before making the dreaded mile trek to the water hole with a 3, 4, and 5 year old in tow (my baby was wanting to nap, so Mike gladly stayed behind and caught a game on the radio before choosing to snooze himself.
The trek was tough, complete with extremely sandy uphill climbs and with plenty of roots for the children to trip over. To take our minds off of the length of the hike we played a word connecting game. For instance, my sister would say cucumber and they would say Larry, or I would say Uncle and they would say ...monkey??? LOL My 3 year old called my oldest a nut head and my nephew said he farted a mosquito off of his butt!! (Kids say the darndest things, right!!)
We were greeted by an empty sandy creek shore, as wide as a beach and the children proceeded to roll down the sandy hill right into the water :D I guess no one else was enticed by the mile hike because we were alone, that's right...we had the place to ourselves :) We probably stayed a little over an hour before dragging back to the car. I knew it wasn't going to be near as fun to get three water-logged children to walk a mile back without whinning, but we made the best of it that we could.
After showering, we headed back for camp and I took a nap...so don't ask me what happened during that 45-55 min. span...
I woke up astonished...not only had Mike grilled the hotdogs, but he was making made to order dogs for the kids! In my head I heard, 'we should do this more often' LOL! I made a dog for myself and inhaled it!!
8 o'clock soon rolled around and after a scary story, I put our tuckered out boys to bed. Mike, my sister, her beau (who arrived while we were swimming) and I gathered wood and built one rockin', blazin' fire! Everytime it burned down, we would gather more wood from the plentiful wooded area. I have always loved trekking the dense woods at night, as I have a really good sense of direction and love being more tha unaware of my surroundings.
After her boyfriend went home, I decided to roast me another hotdog...I like'em burnt to a crisp, and there is NO better hotdog than a campfire dog! YUM! Well, I had to go get a Zip-loc out of my sister's truck and accidently locked her door before shutting it. We spent the next two hours trying to get it open, but were unsuccessful. All along I was trying to tell them to just let me take her back to the house for the spare, but my obsessed hubby had to keep at it. Soon my sister's beau was back trying to figure out what the emergency phone call was all about.
So then we had to watch two males' ooze testosterome before finally deciding at 1:30am to go home and get the keys...GEEZ!! LOL I never felt worse for locking keys in a vehicle then last night...No one ever listens to the little person (me [I'm the shortest of the four of us, hehe]).
This morning it was very had to get up...my baby was continuously banging a coke can on the fan and the children's chorus was fine tuning their screams and laughs for the day! I realized just how sore I was when I stood up...YOUCH! My legs ached from walking more in one day than an entire week :O !! I wasn't alone in my pain as we began breaking down the campsite to go home. It was a wonderful time, full of fantastic images and memories and...
I CAN'T WAIT TO DO IT AGAIN!!!!!
(ok, so this is like for me as much as for you, but hey, I never said I wasn't selfish ;) I'm glad I'm back :)
SpaceCase
How it changed my life:I am temporarily out of a fog I've been in for months...I have to start camping more often, I would rather live in a tent than in my house, but I'd loose my husband to the television in the process, so I will settle for as many camping trips as I can squeeze out of the old bear :D:D:D
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