Camping

Right after Chris and I got married the topic of camping came up.  I said ‘No Way!’ and his family said it was something they always did but in the past 4 years we had been dating they never went camping.  To the beach… yes.  Snow skiing… yes.  On a cruise… yes.  Camping….. um I think I would remember that one.  Well this city girl was not keen on the idea of peeing in the woods or backpacking to wherever our tent would be.  This did not sound like fun to me.  You can ask my mom, I love being near food that can be delivered or convenient shopping.  The only time you can get me away from it is if the wood ‘lakehouse’ is involved.  Chris informed me that I would not have to pee in the woods or backpack to anywhere so I thought I could give this a try. 

We continued to go camping each spring and fall with a group of families that Chris grew up with in his old neighborhood.  It has been so much fun getting together with them for these camping trips to play dominos, go on walks, roast marshmallows, and drink mimosas.  Yes I said mimosas.  On my first trip I was greeted with a mimosa when I got up on Saturday morning and decided that this was definitely something I could do.  We have endured cold, rain, heat, torrential rainstorms that were edges of tornados, and bees.  Each trips brings a new adventure and new stories to tell.  Chris and I camp each time in a tent and have expanded this love of camping to Taylor.  We took her for the first time last spring and again last weekend.  Most of our group still lives in Austin, so we love to go to Inks Lake.  Last year was nice since she was starting to walk, but I have to say that her inquisitive mind made this year even more fun.  

As a special treat for the trip, I made Taylor a Cars pillowcase.  We had found the fabric a few weeks ago, but I finally sat down and made the pillowcase in time for the trip.  She LOVED it!.  She also loved helping Daddy set up the tent.  She was such a big girl and slept on her on area next to us in the tent.  

   

She could’ve dug in the dirt for days if we let her.  It was like a mud puddle in the bathtub when we got home.  There was a rock across the street from our site that was perfect for climbing with Daddy.

     

While the group photo was pretty easy to get this year, a picture of the all the kids was much harder than we thought.  This was one of the only nearby spots with bluebonnets so we took a chance.  Luckily we were able to keep all the kids out of the cactus.  It’s cool to me that these are the kids of kids that grew up together and have similar pictures from when they all went camping together.  We also realized that someone needs to have a boy to help balance out all the girls so far.  The girls are 1, 2, 5 months, and 2 1/2 years old and played so well together.  The one year old is just starting to walk and was dying to keep up with the big girls!  We look forward to many adventures with these four!

We didn’t actually camp with the group in the spring of ‘08 since I was VERY pregnant with Taylor and didn’t think I would survive the air mattress.  Our group takes a picture every year to remember who all was there.  The first two pictures are from that year and the last is from spring ‘09.

I am so thankful that Chris introduced me to a new adventure many years ago and hope that Taylor grows to love camping as much as we do!