Camping Reality. You can still have fun as a Momma

Ever been surrounded by nature and just felt that calm bliss that makes you feel like you haven't a care in the world? I have many times. But they are more spaced out and far between these days.

That's why I love to camp.

I was recently able to go camping with my little kiddos (Steven had school) and although it was a lot of work, those couple days out in nature made it all worth it. I was able to have Elsie and Benson, my younger siblings, come with me. It made all the difference to have them there. They were such an awesome help! I can't believe I was thinking of going alone with just the two babies! I will admit, that camping is definitely not as fun when you're the parent. I have such respect and awe of my mother who would go camping every summer with 1-10 kids depending on the year. SO much packing!!!  But she must've loved it or us enough to let us have such fun adventures.

I remember going to the Australian outback and camping in the middle of nowhere with deadly snakes, spiders and other pleasant poisonous wildlife. On one camping trip, we were camping in someones "backyard" for a week. (Awesome. Esmond has discovered backspace. He just deleted a few sentences with his hand in a sock.)

Sidenote: He has an obsession with socks lately. I don't know if it's a Michael Jackson thing, or a Captain Hook thing, but he can always be found with one sock on his hand. Sometimes he will try climbing furniture with socks on both his hands and I can't help but laugh at some of his wipe outs. They are usually his socks, but he has just stolen Julia's socks right off her feet to fuel his obsession. What a kid!

Anyway, back to the "backyard", we arrived in the middle of the night and drove in our land cruiser down the canyon wall to the bottom in the dark. I remember my Mom crying in the front seat, but I also remember having a blast as we cheered my Dad on with each drop that we felt as we descended into the canyon. In the morning, we looked at the steep cliff we had driven down and were amazed that we made it. The camping trip was a blast! Dad almost got bit by a deadly red belly snake, Jeremy stepped on something in the water that he was afraid was poisonous, and we ran out of water and had to boil it from the river we were camping by. And yet I still remember having so much fun roughing it with my siblings. I don't know how my parents slept at all! I'm going to try to keep the tradition of having at least one camping trip per year but I feel slightly pathetic as far as "roughing it" goes. I think I did all my crazy camping trips as a child. :)

I went to Honeymoon Bay in Cowichan Lake and it was just beautiful. There were showers, flush toilets and running water. The first night, I started thinking that every single sound was some one (most likely a murder or thief) either driving/walking into our campsite, or some animal directly outside our tent about to eat us all. I worked out defence tactics in my head all night which by morning made absolutely no sense. I also worried about some one rolling on top of Julia or a blanket somehow suffocating her. I checked her and Ezzy multiple times through the night to make sure they were warm/alive. And every one slept right through the night including Julia (I think that made me nervous as well).  The daylight brought safety and peace of mind, and I was able to thoroughly enjoy time playing in the water and sun for a whole half an hour! Haha. It could have been longer, but not by much. I didn't really think about how much I would be scouring the beach for a shady spot. Luckily it wasn't too hard to find. Nap time gave me freedom.

Ezzy napped on the ground next to Elsie, Jules slept in a camping chair, and I escaped to the water. It was a gorgeous day and I was able to do the same thing the next day as well! So wonderful to be able to float in the water and enjoy a little bit of freedom. Cooking "hot shmoes" over the camping stove (fire ban), hot chocolate, Mexican rummy, awesome chats with my seestor, and cuddly naps were some of the highlights of a fantastically successful camping trip. I can't wait to go again :)

Anybody have camping tips, or memorable trips?