Precious Memories in the wild

I have to admit that I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with camping. I mean, it is suppose to be a vacation, right; but with all it takes to go sometimes that fact is easy to forget. You spend days planning where to go, when to go, how long to stay, meals, activities, etc. But that is just the beginning. Then to actually leave the house takes a whole day of prepping, getting clothes and supplies, food and kids all into the car. Finally, you make it there and that’s when the fun starts, right?! Preparing the fire, the food, the campsite, pitching the tent, cooking the food, feeding the kids, cleaning the dishes, putting the food out of the way of prying animals, watching the kids constantly so they stay out of the fire, don’t throw rocks at each other, or fall into the river down the hill. Then you get the unique pleasure of sleeping on hard ground, sometimes with a rock massaging a bruise into your bones as you repeatedly tell your kids to go to sleep, well, with the exception of when in the middle of the night you have to put on shoes in the dark to trudge across the campgrounds by flashlight with one of the kids who urgently needs to go to the bathrooms which doubtless are infested little creepy crawlers. And, if that wasn’t fun enough, then you get to wake the moment the sun makes it less than dark and begin the process of cleaning and packing and keeping kids out of the fire and cooking and such all over again.

With all that griping, you may be wondering why I (and now perhaps why you) ever go camping. Well, I will enlighten you. It is for those moments when you think back or look back and know that you were there with the people most important to you doing what matters more than anything else—being together. You were there with the people that matter the most to you building deeper lasting relationships while working together, playing together, and getting dirty together. All this is done without the focus becoming addled by the all too common distractions of TVs and toys, work and school and other life responsibilities. You were making memories that can be looked back on with fondness without once thinking of all that went into making the experience happen.

When Rya went on her first campout with Cody, I had to write about it because it touched my heart. So it is with the same emotion that I share some pictures of Tieg on his first campouts.

 

 

1st Campout @ Devil’s den—September 2011

There is as much cinnamon roll on his face as there is mud. It is just hard to distinguish between the two.	He wore his mud with boyish pride.
Little sleep, sugary foods, constantly covered in dirt—he was in heaven.	The smile never left his face, I dare say even when he was sleeping.

 

 

1st Father/Son Campout in oklahoma—May 2013

	Tieg  was so excited to ride the ‘boats’ (which were canoes) that he stood without complaining in the longest line. And, despite Cody’s initial concern, he didn’t rock the boat, metaphorically or actually. It was a fun trip for both of them.
	He was bubbling with excitement the whole time. Boy’s night, this was a first that he would repeat again and again in a heartbeat.

 

So, I will continue camping despite my polarized feelings towards it, because there is no replacing the beauty that comes from the simple idea of sleeping on the ground, in the wild, with the people that matter most to me. And, there is no replacing the sweet memories that come from it for everyone involved.