Camping Disaster...sort of

Ah, the joys of camping. I actually like camping - I really do - but I've never been camping with the kids before. Hubby has a lot more patience than I do. We got there about 4:30 on Friday and began setting up. The afternoon turned out to be hot & humid, but beautiful. The site we chose was relatively flat and not too far from the bath house and playground. Little Bit and I took a walk around the end of the circle while Hubby and Kiddo set up the tent and the camp site. Little Bit walked along with me, holding my hand, stopping occasionally to examine a leaf (I had a collection of them by the time we got back) or a rock. She was very happy to just take her time and explore, and I let her. When we got back to the site, she spent almost an hour going up and down, up and down the three wooden steps from the drive to the flat spot where the concrete picnic table was. Up and down, up and down. She was practicing and she got quite good at it; it's almost a shame our house doesn't have steps. Then Hubby sent me out to the store to get coffee, because, you know, it's an emergency when you have a new percolator coffee pot and no coffee to brew in it. So I grabbed Little Bit, who cried almost the entire way to the store (about 25 miles, round trip) until I started singing to her and she started singing along. The tent and the bug screen over the picnic table were all set up by the time we got back and it was already nearing 7:30PM. Both kids were hungry and Hubby had the hibachi grill going. We ate turkey burgers and veggie burgers (no condiments, because I didn't hear Hubby tell me to get them while I was at the store) and watermelon. Oh, but I do love a good watermelon! Kiddo's face was orange from the super-strong Tang that Hubby made. Both kids spent time getting in trouble playing with the 3-gallon jug of water we brought specifically for drinking. Then I took them over to the playground while Hubby finished making dinner and getting things organized. It was an interesting playground, and I still haven't figured out how any kid is supposed to get up into the thing that housed the slides!? We ate, we played. I spent almost 2 hours singing to Little Bit, trying to soothe her into sleep. She finally fell asleep in the crook of my left arm while I gently patted her belly. She was completely worn out, but so excited she didn't want to go to sleep, so she fought me. When she finally succumbed to the Sleep Monster, I snuck out to check on my guys. They were roasting "marsh-a-mellos" on sticks in the fire. (Whoever had the site before we did left several logs of wonderfully aromatic cedar wood and the fire Hubby built smelled great! He saved a couple chunks for me to sniff. Maybe I'll put them in one of my dresser drawers...or maybe I'll use them on a scrapbook page, when/if I ever find all my crafting supplies.) Anyway - to make a long story short (I know...too late) sometime around 2AM it started raining. Not just a light drizzle but a deluge; a total downpour. So there we are, cozy in our tent, listening to the rain. Little Bit is up and down all night - crawling on top of us, trying to get to the dog (who came with us, by the way) chattering on about the rain, wanting to unzip the flaps and look out the windows and generally making a nuisance of herself. Kiddo woke up and tried his best to settle her down by himself. He called her back to him and wrapped his arm around her, but unfortunately that only served to tick her off and sent her careening over me to the other side and away from her big brother. Somehow we managed to get some sleep and then it was 6:15AM and we were all awake. The tent had leaked, so sleeping bags, pillows, clothes etc were all soaked. Everything was damp. Hubby and Kiddo were already outside of the tent working on breakfast in the foggy, quiet of the early morning. The air was still heavy with rain and everything, everything was wet. Hubby cooked turkey sausage and add-water-and-shake pancakes - which were, much to my surprise, all very good. The cowboy coffee (in new percolator) was actually hot and decent. (We forgot coffee cups, but thankfully there were a couple Styrofoam cups in my car that, after a good washing, were usable for hot beverages. I tried to be pleasant and happy, but all I could think about was being warm and dry. So, after packing up all the wet things, I took Little Bit and headed home around 9AM. Hubby and Kiddo stayed behind to see if the day would get any better - with the possibility of staying another night should things dry off. Little Bit fell asleep just after we drove over the dam (we were at Norris State Park) and she barely stirred when I lifted her sleeping body out of the car seat and into her bed once we got home. Then I tumbled into bed, too, and we both slept for about four hours. Sometime around 1:30 or 2PM, I called Hubby to see how things were going. He said, "Well, we're outside the door!" I opened the door to see him carrying the limp, sleeping body of Kiddo across the street and onto our deck. After he dumped Kiddo in his bed and covered him up, Hubby crashed diagonally across our bed and slept, deeply, for a few hours. There is so much more, but I have already written a novella here, so I'd better sign off. Needless-to-say, Kiddo, Little Bit and I all have stuffy noses, but we're all doing fine. Maybe next time (yes, there will be a next time) we'll have the luck of good weather. I'll post a few pictures tomorrow, if I remember to bring the camera! TTFN JMS