Camp Out

As mentioned in a previous blog entry, Will has been asking to go camping. So last night, the boys and I camped out in the back yard. I set up the two-man tent (received as a five-year anniversary gift from my company) and our "campfire". We then made the customary smores before going into the house to brush teeth and put on warm pajamas.

Since we have never really camped as a family, we only have one sleeping bag. We have also never actually slept in the tent before (in my wife's blog she says we did, but she forgot that we borrowed a tent from friends for that trip). I unzipped the sleeping bag and spread it out on the floor of the tent. It covered the entire floor, with some bunched at the top, which tells you how small this tent is. I brought a twin-sized blanket for all three of us to sleep under, along with smaller blankets to augment that one. I put a boy on either side of me - we had a road-trip in May that provided the knowledge that the boys will aggravate each other if they sleep next to each other. Two flashlights, a Bible, some library books and the digital camera rounded out our supplies.

I was in the process of reading our bed-time Bible story prior to reading the library books when my wife came out with one of our phones (they have intercom capabilities). On her way over to us, she heard some critter rustling in the bushes in the backyard. On getting to the tent, she asked for a flashlight and, upon receiving one, declared that it was a skunk. At which point she high-tailed it back into the house. Go here to see her description of this event. We had been enjoying the view of the dying fire, but I promptly zipped up the door as I did not want an inquisitive skunk joining us. We prayed and asked that God would cause the skunk to go away and that we would not get sprayed. For a few minutes we listened to it rustling around in the yard and then it was gone and we were still breathing untainted air. Ben did keep asking about the skunk, if it was in the wild. He also declared that he would like to play with the skunk. This from the boy who yells at the squirrels to go away because he's afraid of them.

Two library books followed this. Part way through the third book, the boys decided that they were ready to hit the hay, so we never finished it. We all lay down and I pulled the blankets up. That's when I discovered a problem with the sleeping arrangements. I'm a fellow of average height but this is too tall for this particular tent. I could not stretch out all the way due to the constraints of the opposing tent walls. I don't know how this could be marketed as a two-person tent. Maybe a two short person tent. Anyway, I decided that since I had two short kids with me, we would just swing the whole sleeping arrangement around so that we were diagonal - my head in one corner and my feet in the opposite corner. This worked much better.

The next thing we dealt with was the noise. Since we were in the backyard in the middle of a suburb, near an airport, there was a LOT of noise, much more than you notice in the house. As a result of the skunk incident and because these nighttime noises were new to the boys, there were a lot of "What was that, daddy?" questions. Finally, the boys went to sleep and then I drifted off.

I slept good for a couple of hours but then woke up as I was trying to roll over. From then on, I slept in short spurts. I began to wish for a nice cushioned pad or air mattress. I could feel several bumps or acorns under me and finding a position that was comfortable became increasingly difficult. Will woke up a couple of times needing to go to the bathroom. Great thing about having a boy. I just unzipped the door, pointed to a spot in the yard away from everything and told him to go for it.

About 5:30 a.m. all three of us were awake. It was starting to get really cool. The blankets had gotten pulled and twisted in such a way that my feet kept sticking out and were cold. So I asked the boys if they wanted to go in and sleep the rest of the night in their beds (that way I could sleep in my bed). They said no, so we stayed. We all went back to sleep for a while. I did get some good snuggle time as it got cooler and the boys were seeking body warmth. I did not mind.

Around 7:30 a.m we were all awake again but this time there was no going back to sleep. The boys started getting up and we had some play time. At 8:00 a.m. we headed into the house where I prepared a chocolate chip pancake breakfast.

I had not really expected to last all night but we did. I had a great time with the boys and I believe they had a great time too. The discomfort and the cold were worth the bonding done and memories made. Below are some pictures from the camp out.