Teaser and a Story

TEASER

I noticed the other day that it has been much too long since I contributed anything to the blog. To rectify that situation I've gone so far as to write up an outline of a number of posts (totally nerdy thing to do) I'd like to make before Christmas. So it's off to the races...


STORY

This summer Paige surprised the family with camping plans. This was very unexpected as she doesn't like to camp (read: detests it) and none of us were pressuring her into such an activity. But when the boys heard it, they were stoked, to say the least. I was somewhat apprehensive as my favorite memories of camping don't typically involve cars parked nearby, 7 other families from the ward, 30-odd kids, and roughly 25 feet between campsites - but that was all about to change (that's my story and I'm sticking to it).


The picture below, taken on Saturday morning doesn't really do justice to the travails of that night. I put Emily to bed in a pack n play outside of the tents. I covered her in blankets and the crib in blankets much like you would a bird cage and as a result she was toasty warm, though hopelessly engulfed in pitch black. This didn't pose a problem when she went to bed, but it would later.



I put the boys to bed in the 3 man tent and had them toasty warm in sweats, and loaded down under blankets, complete with pillows. We were playing a man down (or two or three) since I had loaned Dad my sleeping bag and pad for Fish Creek, but we figured we had enough blankets and other stuff to make up the difference. We were wrong.


Paige was Chatty-Cathy with the other girls that night at the fire so I just went to bed. I was woefully un-prepared as I realized I didn't bring any long pants of any kind. So I went to bed in shorts and a long sleeve t-shirt and hoped that between the sweatshirt blanket and sleeping between the boys I would stay warm. In what I thought was a gesture of kindness I left the one sleeping bag we did have for Paige, since she would be sleeping alone in the 2 man tent, or so we thought.


At some point in the night (very, very late) Paige came to bed. Away from the fire and under a clear sky, the night was cold. Paige got in her bag and was nearly asleep when Emily screamed out. As you may recall she was sleeping outside both tents, basically in a pitch black tent of her own. It's not like we were being negligent, though it may have looked like that to the casual observer, and she was making it sound like that, but I promise we weren't. You may also recall that we were surrounded by other families 25 feet away in every direction, it's the middle of the night, and Emily was panicking as if being attacked by wolves.


Paige and I decided to wait it out and hoped she would go back to sleep quickly. That didn't work out. We didn't dare wait to long. Since I we technically already had 3 people in the 3 man tent, and the 2 man tent only had 1, Paige was nominated (and accepted) to sleep with Emily. This would have worked fine if Emily had slept.


For the next two and a half hours, until 4:30am or so, Emily cooed and laughed and refused to sleep. She wouldn't hold still and wouldn't stay next to Paige in the bag or under her blankets. Because she got out from the warmth she was too cold to fall asleep and since she wouldn't sleep, neither Paige nor I could sleep. Remember, the tents are adjacent to each other and the ripstop nylon does very little to muffle sound.


Paige reached the breaking point of exhaustion so we switched places at somepoint between 4:30 and 5am. I thought I was helping out. As you may guess, that was not the case. Paige now gave up the warm bag with the hyped up kid, for a spot between the boys under a thin little blanket. I "volunteered" to get in the sleeping bag and deal with Emily.


By this point Emily was nearing exhaustion and both she and I fell asleep after a quick round of wrestling and convincing. Paige on the other hand proceeded to shiver for the next 2 hours. Just about the same time that the Paige was beginning to succumb to not only exhaustion but also the cold, the boys and Emily woke up and were ready to go for the morning, and we had to get moving because we were on breakfast duty for all 8 families (approx 45 people in total). As you can see from the picture the kids were rested and ready to conquer the wilderness.


We haven't been camping since, though Paige has put it in the boys' heads that we're going to do it for a Boy's Night sometime soon. I think that's a great idea, so long as there are pillows, pads, and sleeping bags for all!