Camping?!

I am not naturally bent towards things that are rugged and outdoorsy. But you know, I am willing to give the great outdoors a shot once in a while. We figured that camping is something you are supposed to do with kids. Kids are often covered in dirt- camping is really dirty. Kids can act like wild animals and wild animals belong in the forest (or jungle but we don't have one of those nearby). So we decided to pack up The Lil, the family tent trailer and a load of warm blankets and head for the trees. We also convinced our friends, the Driebergen Family, to join us in our woodsy revelry. The Driebergens are practically professional campers and even have a propane powered 'camping coffeemaker' that they bring along with them. A couple of the highlights of our one night camping adventure included:

1. Meeting a local Raccoon.
2. Meeting several local mice friends.
3. Being randomly checked on by two sets of parents. This really did happen, I guess they did not trust us all with small children in the wilderness?
4. In no specific order...Eating Schezuan chips, s'mores, hot dogs (with melted cheese), twizzlers, steak, chicken, strawberries, eggs, sausage, chewy chips ahoy, Tim Horton's coffee, hot chocolate and Timbits, hash browns, smokin' stampede chips, caesar salad and various other beverages that I will not divulge on the world wide web. Umm.. apparently you just gorge yourself when camping? This all took place in a 15 hour window which included a few hours of sleep too.
5. Learning the hard way that my husband snores in the great outdoors.
6. Realizing that the Sesame Street DVD and our portable DVD player are some of the most precious items that we own (see pic below for example).

I am still not totally convinced that being smelly, cold and surrounded by small vermin is the be all and end all. Give me a beach resort any day but I suppose it can be nice to be in touch with our inner nature enthusiast once in a while.

Dinner Time. Who says you can't eat a strawberry stem?

The whole camp site. Yes, that is our daughter trying to eat rocks.

Drive-In Movie Theater.

Ben of the Forest. The children flock to him.
Click to get a closer look at our friendly neighbor.