Let's get away. (!) (?)

Will has wanted to go camping with the kids all summer, actually since he came home from Afghanistan, and even though I feel like I did my fair share...PLUS...with our Stake's "Trek" last month (someday I'll post something about it) and Will and Jay just returned from a long weekend boys camp out with Will's family (again, I'll post later), Will still had a desire to go camping. I think Will's still trying to find "normal" since Afghanistan. Cooking and keeping warm by a fire is something that reminded him of his home in Afghanistan. Only without the 60 lbs. of body armour and a gun.

Regardless of the weather forecast, which said 20% chance of rain, we loaded up the truck and headed for the canyon. I was really pleased with ourselves. I didn't go to the store to get anything for this camping trip. Yes, it was just for overnight, but usually I want to get all sorts of snacks, drinks, just-in-cases, and more wet wipes, but we did with what we had in the pantry and the freezer. I was going to make foil dinners for us to put in the fire, but found that I didn't have enough foil to make 6 foil dinners and in keeping with my anti-store/make it do theme, I put all the fixings in a big dutch oven and we packed the 30 lb. dinner along with wood and everything else we needed for a delicious dinner.

Then my plans for a total in-house supplied camping trip had to be broken. We needed marshmallows. Obviously! I made Will run into the store to get them. I had 2 queen size pillows, 2 Ensign magazines, 3 Pottery Barn magazines, my current book and a dog on my lap. I wasn't going anywhere. Will has acquired a 6th sense. The "Julie's annoyed" sense, so he came out of the store with the fixings for s'mores and a big Diet Coke for me. Ahhhh! He read my mind!

We got there about 9:00 pm, (after football practice for Will and Jay - aaaaabviously!) right before total darkness and long enough for Will to start a fire for dinner. I commented to Will that we were going to be eating pretty late, and he commented back to me that that is very common anyway. True.

And then it started to rain.

A lot.

For a long time.

The thunder and lightning were wonderful. I love that, but Emma didn't like it so much. So we hid in the truck and in the tent until the rain stopped falling so hard and we watched the fire - the fire we needed to cook our dinner - and hoped that it would continue to burn. It did, and we ate at about 10:30. About usual, especially for summer, but extra points for me - it wasn't cold cereal!

This is a sight that will never be seen again on one of our camping trips. This whining, must smell EVERYTHING, anti-leash, anti-pee/poop anywhere but on the grass at home dog. In addition to that...white haired dogs and rain and mud DO NOT mix on a camping trip. I used almost an entire package of wet wipes trying to clean off his face and paws...I gave up and just shoved him in the tent with the kids and walked away. Only to listen to almost an hour of whining and begging to get out of the tent. The next morning, I realized that Willie was causing most of my stress. Any sound he made caused me anxiety because I didn't want him to disturb any other campers. You know how your own children sound louder to you than to anyone else around you? That was me. I heard every whine from him. I was miserable, he was muddy and miserable - so I took the keys and drove down the canyon and took him home. He immediately got out of the truck and went "potty" in the back yard. On grass. Spoiled dog. He got bathed and blown dry and when he saw I was leaving again, he stood in the kitchen doorway, far away from the door I was exiting from, and his body language was...I'm good. Go ahead and go.

With pleasure!

I laid down on the air mattress that I insisted that Will bring (he had already read my mind and had packed it) and was looking forward to a good nights sleep - hopefully without any more whining from Willie. Will fell asleep before his head hit the pillow and then I thought I heard a bear growl. I'm sure it wasn't, but I kept waiting for the bear claw to slice through the side of our tent. At that point, I kind of regretted putting Willie's bark collar on him.

Needless to say - I didn't sleep so well.

Then Emma said she found a bat near the bathroom entrance. The girls used words like, cute to describe the bat as it clung to the wall, blocking the entrance - as far as I was concerned - into the bathroom. That's another reason I took Willie home in the morning. I used my own bathroom - bat free entrance and all!

The kids had a great time. I think Will did too - I hope I didn't ruin it for him! He does such a great job at thinking of anything and everything that could possibly make me happier especially in places and doing things that I'm not particularly thrilled about. I really didn't do much to help except hold the umbrella over Will's head as he tried to get our lanterns working in the rain...and I finished my book, too. I still marvel at how much crap (pardon my lovely language) that we need in order to survive in the outdoors. Ahhh, the comforts of life, I guess.

Thanks Will, for our final get away this summer! You're such a handy guy to have around! The part I like most about camping, is getting cleaned up after!