Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Pop-up Fever

Last weekend we enjoyed our first campfire of the year out on our patio. It was time. We have been having a seriously warm and early spring so even though it would normally be out of the question to sit outdoors in late March here in WI, it was a perfect night for it. We had our bff's over, and we started talking about when would be a good time to start planning our first camping trip. Didn't take James long to run inside and grab his Mac and dial up Reserve America! badabing and there....done! Our first reservation was made for a weekend in May! Well that was so easy...we booked a second weekend! Now we were stoked. We last camped in late November, and we were bemoaning the fact that it would be months and months before we'd be able to camp again....but we made up for the long winter by taking lots of ski trips. But now, here it was already-camping season hurray! (I realize that if the thought of camping makes your skin crawl, you're prolly thinking I'm nuts. We've come to the realization that there is a sub-culture camping community out there. If you're one of 'us', I know you can relate to my excitement). Ok so we have our two weekends already planned. Yay. So last Tuesday, I get a call from my husband while I'm at work. He says, "hey." and I can hear something cute and clever lingering in the tenor of his voice. So I say, "hey..." and I wait. He says, "so...I've been looking at the forecast for this weekend and um....." and I hesitate for a moment, and reply, "yeah....and?" James continues slowly...."well, it's supposed to be like, in the 60s and sunny this weekend so I was thinking....wanna go camping??" Whoo-Hoooo!!! So I text BBJones and say "Girl! We're going camping this weekend come with us!!" So we had a great time, even if it was a bit cooler on Saturday. That makes for perfect campfire weather! I was actually giddy when we had our camper set up again-I missed the old gal! There's nothing like the smell of the camper, the ice cold Diet Coke, the serious snacking, the sound of the trees and drops of rain on the camper while sleeping, late night jokes and laughs around the fire, Nate sleeping in, giggles from the girls from inside, camp coffee, James' burgers, Nate's chatter, long walks, midnight bathroom treks, I could go on and on and on.
Nate's a camper. We start 'em young.
Happy Birthday, Daddy!!

6 comments:

  1. Awwwww... I love the pictures. I don't have the camping bug but I'm glad you guys had fun! And I want a kiss from Natie!!

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  2. I think you are right, there is an entire sub-culture camping community! No unwanted distractions,surrounded by loved ones... Even though your vivid description brought Peter Potterfield to mind and the love you captured in the photos is palpable,I will have to enjoy camping through your eyes! Alas, camping doesn't make my skin crawl, SPIDERS do!

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  3. Anonymous, your comments made me laugh! I confess, I didn't know who Peter Potterfield was, so I looked him up...which made your comment even more humorous. (P.Potterfield, for those of you like moi, who don't know him, is the editor of Great Outdoors.com, among other things).

    If my prose of camping-dreaming made you think of his specialty of covering mountaineering and backcountry adventures...then I'm flattered (although my moutaineering and backcounty adventures are limited to "climbing" over the pack-and-play in the middle of the night to take Maddie to the "backcounty" if you know what I mean!)

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  4. Hi there, so I happened upon your blog through google after I posted my rant today about the Welcome to Holland Poem. I then read what you wrote and was so pleased to know that I am not alone in my dislike for this poem. I started skimming through your blog and wanted to extend my thanks for your awesome encouragement in your faith. We have very similar views when it comes to Holland. Glad to know you never landed their either :) Anywho, my son Grady is 2 months born with DS and he is just pure joy. How you described having Nate in the about Nate section of your blog and reference to the song was awesome!

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