Camping with kids...

Camping with kids is much like fishing with kids. Where I fondly remember moments fishing and camping of years past, that is now replaced with a newer understanding and appreciation of them both. First, I grow only deeper in my appreciation for the patience of my grandmother and all the fishing trips she took me on. I have memories of endless bliss of reeling in fish after fish sitting companionably with my elder brother.

Now that I'm a mom, I realize the hard work my grandma did to build such beautiful memories into my young years. Truly, it is sweaty, hot work of endless baiting, fish removal, and fixing hung up line. Somehow my memories seem so peaceful, but I imagine there was one tired grandma at the end of those hot fishing days. Grandma was tireless in creating joy in my childhood.

That takes me to our first camping trip with all four kids. Unlike my backpacking days in Colorado with Jason, we did not ponder life around a fire as we read thoughtful books and gazed at the beautiful scenery.

No, the joy of this trip was much different from the quiet moments of my twenties. Camping with the kids was all go, go, go, and then and eventual crash in sleeping bags. We played so hard, we hoped for an easy bedtime. After a few chapters of an excellent book I've been reading with the kids, they peaceably found sleep.  And Jason and I were able to steal a few moments to talk around a fire...

We went swimming, hiking, wading in a creek, exploring, hunting firewood, hunting bugs, wrestled. The trip was a success, but I came home very tired. Very dirty. Very full. We laughed together with the kids, we laughed watching them feel comfortable in their new outdoor surroundings, we enjoyed ourselves tremendously.

Someday I will return to the quiet camping I once knew, but somehow I think I will miss the busy chaos. I'm forever like my grandma; hard working for the bliss of the joy in watching my children embrace life at it's best!