Summertime and the Living is Easy...I hope

My beautiful husband and I are taking a vacation next week! Woo-stinkin-Hoo! I am beyond excited. We are going to the Eastern Shore; Assateague, Chincoteague, Cape Charles, and who knows where else.  We are taking the kids CAMPING for four nights at Kiptopeke State Park.

You read right, we are taking our 5 year old Noah and our 2 year old Maia tent camping. And I am not scared, not in the least. I am excited about it. Something about camping just does it for me. I love to be outside, I love trees and campfire and wind blowing through my tent and having nature’s symphony lull me to sleep. I love packing for camping, and I love setting up camp. I love making order of the chaos and living simply.

 

Granted, we are car camping at a state park, so we will have electricity and bathrooms and showers very close by, so we are not roughing it in the slightest, but there is still something exhilarating about meeting the challenge of having to cook food on an open fire and wash clothes and dishes in a bathroom sink and having everything we need packed up in the trunk of my car to survive outside for the better part of a week.  When we get there and set up camp, and begin living outdoors, and we meet our first obstacle, and I have packed something which becomes the solution, I seriously get a high from that, it’s disturbing really.

 

 

And so I have been packing since Monday. We leave Sunday after church, today is Friday and we are just over halfway packed. Oh, well, you know, I had to create a Camping! Board on Pinterest, and fill it with awesome ideas about camping and what-to-do-with-your-toddler-while-camping, then I had to implement about 5 out of 300 of those suggestions.  So now the kids are packed, and our swimming/rain bag is packed, and our kitchen/bathroom/Campsite boxes are packed.  We still have to pack ourselves and kids’ toys and pack a cooler with groceries. What’s that you say? Of course I planned the menu already! But we are only planning to cook about 6 meals, since I figure it will rain some and we won’t be able to get a good fire going, so we will have to eat out (tough life).

The best part about camping is that we grow closer each time. We make memories each time. We are forced to talk. Phones, TVs, movies, these are no longer a part of our relational process. We are forced to find things to do with each other or die of boredom.  I am especially excited that Maia is coming this year. It will be her first year camping. Noah has gone each year since he was 18 months old.  He loves the dirt, and loves to find “treasures” when we hike, and generally and sincerely picked up a respect and admiration for nature, I like to think as a result of those trips, although it may just be engrained in him.

Maia, however, is a bit prissier by nature. She doesn’t spend as much time outside and is generally whinier and harder to please than Noah.  I have packed paint and we will gather and paint rocks and make art out of them and take pictures of it. I have printed out a leaf identification guide and we will have contests about who can gather the most different leaf types for a prize.  We will have a scavenger hunt, swim in the Bay, climb the lighthouse, hike trails, and I even planned for some spontaneity.

I hear its going to rain, but that doesn’t scare me much. We have rain gear packed, and we will just prepare to be wet. We are going to make the most of this week. We are going to listen to each other, really listen. And we will make memories. I will relax and play and relax and read and relax. I can’t wait. I'm already salivating over the stories to come...pictures to follow*!

 

*I vow not to be so engrossed in capturing the memories that I don't live in them. I will put down the camera and focus on my family.

3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? 5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: 7 all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. 9 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!   

~Psalm 8:3-9