Family Camping!
Family Camping Adventure Friday June 16th to Sunday June 18th!
For those of you that have never experienced camping I pity you. Camping is one of those tasks that provides all the feelings, emotions, and imagination one could ever hope for! My family and I recently went on a wonderful camping adventure!
let me pause here and introduce my family. There is my lovely wife Ann Marie (age 32), my handsome and intelligent son Jonathan (age 6), and me beautiful and cute little devil Genevieve (3 weeks shy of age 3). And me, my name is Matt (age 31). Now...back to camping...
The adventure of camping does not start as you hit the open road, nor does it start as you frantically gather the contents of your home and try to squeeze it, along with your family, into the car which now seems 10 sizes too small. It all begins with the thought in your head to even decide to go on the adventure. For some it's a HUGE step...do I possibly dare to leave the comfortable world as I know it and head for the rough, rugged and great outdoors? For others, like myself, it's not just another place to eat sleep and pee (without worrying about toilet lids!), it's a place to get away from the frantic and busy life of home and to slow things down a bit. If you are a single individual, making the choice of go and no go is a pretty simple dilemma. Now add others. They may be friends, family, a girlfriend or boyfriend. Should all of these people not agree with the idea of living in THE WILD, there is always a family pet who lacks the voice and reason to say no. And what if you have no pet? What then? Well, then it is time to uncover that favorite stuffed animal that you try and keep hidden from everyone else. The little stuffed animal with the tearing seams, tattered fur, and missing eye that has heard all your stories...and other noises of the night that I shall not mention here. I have done lots of camping. I have been with my family as a small boy. I have been with uncles, aunts, and cousins. I have been as a strong and proud Canadian Air Cadet. I have been with friends. And this most recent trip was with my own family. So you can say I have almost covered the whole camping journey! All there is now is to go camping with my grandchildren...and God willing (and before He strikes me down!) with my great grand children.
So here I am with the thought in my head "I want to go camping!". And immediately there are conflicts. There is only one weekend even remotely suitable for camping and it's the weekend of my mom's birthday and father's day. But looking at the calendar, every other weekend has something or another going on. So what's the best thing to do? Call my mom and dad and ask if they mind? No! I ask my wife at this point. She definitely has more sense than I do and she is a good person to turn to for inspiration and guidance. Luckily for me I have been able to mould my wife into a bit of a camper herself. (For those guys with wives that hate camping, hypnosis and those cool tapes you play when they sleep work best. For the wives with guys that hate camping, tell em no more action unless it's in the tent at a camp ground. I bet he builds you a permanent cottage on the site with running water, showers, and a fragrented flushable toilet.) So I ask my wife and she says to call and see if anything is going on. I felt good at this point because I was actually thinking along the lines of my wife which meant taking the first step towards camping would be a nice and easy step. I pick up the phone and call my parents to explain everything. Being the awesome mom that she is, she tells me what her ungrateful son can go and do with himself...Just Kidding...she is a very understanding women and understands the value of some nice family time so she tells me to go ahead and bring her a $500 gift later (unfortunately the one-of-a-kind racing snail the kids found didn't make it out of the campsite so now I still owe her a gift). So now I have my wife on board for camping, kids are easy to convince...ROASTED MARSHMELLOWS! So now the family is on board and it's time for another decision, who should we invite? We have always camped with other people! So we make a few phone calls and are turned down each time. We decide to forget inviting anyone else and make it a family camping weekend. Just the family. A novel idea! So just the family it will be. Awesome. Now let's recap all that has happened so far. An inspiration to go camping was made, the family was brought on board, and permission was obtained from all affected persons. There are still many steps left in the process...but I will stop here for now...
For those of you that have never experienced camping I pity you. Camping is one of those tasks that provides all the feelings, emotions, and imagination one could ever hope for! My family and I recently went on a wonderful camping adventure!
let me pause here and introduce my family. There is my lovely wife Ann Marie (age 32), my handsome and intelligent son Jonathan (age 6), and me beautiful and cute little devil Genevieve (3 weeks shy of age 3). And me, my name is Matt (age 31). Now...back to camping...
The adventure of camping does not start as you hit the open road, nor does it start as you frantically gather the contents of your home and try to squeeze it, along with your family, into the car which now seems 10 sizes too small. It all begins with the thought in your head to even decide to go on the adventure. For some it's a HUGE step...do I possibly dare to leave the comfortable world as I know it and head for the rough, rugged and great outdoors? For others, like myself, it's not just another place to eat sleep and pee (without worrying about toilet lids!), it's a place to get away from the frantic and busy life of home and to slow things down a bit. If you are a single individual, making the choice of go and no go is a pretty simple dilemma. Now add others. They may be friends, family, a girlfriend or boyfriend. Should all of these people not agree with the idea of living in THE WILD, there is always a family pet who lacks the voice and reason to say no. And what if you have no pet? What then? Well, then it is time to uncover that favorite stuffed animal that you try and keep hidden from everyone else. The little stuffed animal with the tearing seams, tattered fur, and missing eye that has heard all your stories...and other noises of the night that I shall not mention here. I have done lots of camping. I have been with my family as a small boy. I have been with uncles, aunts, and cousins. I have been as a strong and proud Canadian Air Cadet. I have been with friends. And this most recent trip was with my own family. So you can say I have almost covered the whole camping journey! All there is now is to go camping with my grandchildren...and God willing (and before He strikes me down!) with my great grand children.
So here I am with the thought in my head "I want to go camping!". And immediately there are conflicts. There is only one weekend even remotely suitable for camping and it's the weekend of my mom's birthday and father's day. But looking at the calendar, every other weekend has something or another going on. So what's the best thing to do? Call my mom and dad and ask if they mind? No! I ask my wife at this point. She definitely has more sense than I do and she is a good person to turn to for inspiration and guidance. Luckily for me I have been able to mould my wife into a bit of a camper herself. (For those guys with wives that hate camping, hypnosis and those cool tapes you play when they sleep work best. For the wives with guys that hate camping, tell em no more action unless it's in the tent at a camp ground. I bet he builds you a permanent cottage on the site with running water, showers, and a fragrented flushable toilet.) So I ask my wife and she says to call and see if anything is going on. I felt good at this point because I was actually thinking along the lines of my wife which meant taking the first step towards camping would be a nice and easy step. I pick up the phone and call my parents to explain everything. Being the awesome mom that she is, she tells me what her ungrateful son can go and do with himself...Just Kidding...she is a very understanding women and understands the value of some nice family time so she tells me to go ahead and bring her a $500 gift later (unfortunately the one-of-a-kind racing snail the kids found didn't make it out of the campsite so now I still owe her a gift). So now I have my wife on board for camping, kids are easy to convince...ROASTED MARSHMELLOWS! So now the family is on board and it's time for another decision, who should we invite? We have always camped with other people! So we make a few phone calls and are turned down each time. We decide to forget inviting anyone else and make it a family camping weekend. Just the family. A novel idea! So just the family it will be. Awesome. Now let's recap all that has happened so far. An inspiration to go camping was made, the family was brought on board, and permission was obtained from all affected persons. There are still many steps left in the process...but I will stop here for now...
posted by Matt at 9:55 AM
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