I'm on my 9th load of laundry since returning home last night. I have a good 7 more to go.
I love camping.
Joe took Lexi to get her glasses fixed this evening because they were broken when we were camping. They're broken every time we camp. It's a rule or something.
I love camping.
I think my ears have finally stopped ringing from listening to the kids for 3 hours on the way home.
Mom! She hit me!
Go away, Jackson!
Mom! She's on my side!
Dad! She's kicking my chair!
Mom! Make her stop kicking my chair!
Dad! I'm thirsty!
Mom! Is there anything to eat?
Are we almost there yet?
And let's not forget Brooklyn's made-up Yogi Bear song. I believe the lyrics went a little like this: Yogi Bear Yogi Bear Yogi Bear Yogi Bear Yogi Bear Yogi Bear Yogi Bear Yogi Bear Yogi Bear Yogi Bear Yogi Bear Yogi Bear. Repeat until your ears bleed.
Oh yes, and then there was Clay who kept repeating, "butt crack"
I think all minivans should come equipped with sound-proof glass between the driver's seat and the back of the van (like a limo) standard. It's not that we don't love to hear our kids, but we like our ear drums intact and would enjoy keeping them that way. Besides, there's a direct car-to-noise ratio. The more enclosed the space (like a vehicle), the louder the sounds. The louder the sounds, the more stress inflicted upon the parents. The more stress on the parents, the more they have an urge to drive their car off a cliff. It's simple math, really.
I love camping.
I have mosquito bites in places I'd rather not mention. My ankles are bloody scabs from all the scratching I did in my sleep. And creepy alien lightning bugs tried to abduct me and Jenny at the campground. Honestly! It's true! You can even ask Jen. She'll tell you. We had to jump up on our camping chairs so the lightning bug didn't drag us off under the camper. No, we weren't drinking, why?
I love camping.
The kids are off schedule from camping. I think Brooklyn woke up a half hour after I went to bed. It's been a fun day around here. Have I mentioned that I love camping?
Monday, July 7, 2008
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32 comments:
Oh my, this sounds just too familiar...just yesterday we were fantasizing about the sound proof wall between us and the kids in the van. The made up song we had to listen to had to do with poop. Fun.
OMG!! So funny. I have said Many times that there needs to be a minivan with Limo-style privacy glass. Why, oh why, doesn't someone invent it!??!
I am a frequent reader but this is my first post. Thank you for sharing your life with us!
Lauren, Single Mom to D (age 8)
& Nanny to A (8), L (6), J (4) and J (1)
So when's the next camping trip planned? :)
And if it makes you feel ANY better, my sister's favorite song when she was younger was the Jing Jing song. One day in the middle of summer, she started to sing Jingle Bells but realized it was nowhere near Christmas. And thus, "jing jing jing jing jing jing jing jing jing jing jing jing jing jing jing jing jing jing jing jing jing (et al)" was born. At least you got two words from Brooklyn!
Honey, you don't know camping fun until you've read my experience!
www.40somethingcrises.blogspot.com/2008/04/what-motivates-me-to-lose-weight.html
I'm thinking a nice hotel with a clean pool and cable TV. Oh, and a babysitter would be great!
Gee, and my husband was so hoping I'd revise my definition of camping (a hotel without room service hahaha) now that we have two boys. NOT! Thanks for giving me vivid images as ammunition. My washing machine is currently spewing water all over my basement floor; I can only imagine how much more annoyed I'd be if I was supposed to be trying to wash away any evidence of sleeping on the ground! You deserve a medal.
~Laura
HAHAHAHA -- and guess what?! Next year at this time I will AGAIN remind you to read your blog from this year before making the trip to go camping. However, I guarantee you still go, and I guarantee you'll still love it in the end :)
Glad you had a safe trip!
Lisa
ok this is why I DO NOT camp. something is always bitting, sliming, or trying to carry you away. I have seen these bugs that can carry you away but where I live they happen to be the biggest nastiest roaches that are alive (besides those hissing kind). Drinking!! me either!!
I hope that you had fun despite all the bad crazy stuff that seems to happen.
We are getting ready to go camping in 10 days. It will be the girls first time. You have made me rethink this idea, maybe we should go to sea world instead? No really, I can't be more excited, thankfully we don't have lightning bugs so chances of our abduction are slim. We are only traveling 45 minutes away, so in case of mental break down we can come home! I am thinking, my mental break down not theirs!
Jen
Hey Dawn! I hate I mean... love camping too! ON the mosquito bite thing... 100 mg of vitamin B1 a day. Just that vitamin, in a pill all by itself... start taking them in April, and by the time mosquitos get to hanging around... your body will begin excreting some odor, or something similar, that the little creepy crawlies find really repulsive, but is undectable by humans... they may land, but they won't bite. It's amazing. I have literally not had a mosquito or gnat bite in 4 years!
Don't take this the wrong way.... ;-) but go back to your post on July 2 and re-read it and then explain why you still go camping? lol. Anyway, you must be quite a trooper to keep trying the camping thing. :)
Ah, thank you once again for making me laugh out loud! And the previous post, with the presidential quartet! I'm still laughing! Until I read the pool rules. Then I started gagging. But I scrolled back to the quartet! Still funny! Thank you!
Guess what - the car rides get worse when you add in a morose, disapproving teenager whose tension you can feel adding to your own. I always make sure to sit mine next to the most annoying sibling. Preferably the nose-picker...
Honestly, I bet you do love camping. It's just all the "other garbage" that you could do without....
I always hate coming home from a trip if i don't have a washing machine while there. The laundry alone makes me want to swallow Liquid Drano. UGH!
Glad you make it home in one piece.
:) Debi
ps I just started a recipe blog that is all natural. Now, don't get too excited yet as I have only posted one so far, but I know you 7 I are using very similar diets for our kids, so i thought you might be interested.
Haven't taken the kids camping yet and they are 5,6 and 7. We have the gear and are planning on doing a test run in my in-laws back yard (they have an acre of land)...not sure I want to do this though. I agree that the sound proof glass needs to come standard in all mini-vans where the noise from the back over powers the music coming from the stereo.
Hi Dawn!
THANK YOU for the blogs on your camping adventure! I had been feeling sorry for myself because I had to work on the 4th of July and the rest of the weekend. Now, I am really grateful!
My version of camping is going to a cabin that is sealed against bugs, has an indoor toilet and a real shower that allows me to cleanse myself every day.
Let us know when you're feeling civilized and back to normal again...
Oh, and it's really good that you are getting your kids to the great outdoors. There are many articles these days about kids that have no idea how to be with nature, and don't feel the connection to something greater because they spend so much time indoors playing video games... Maybe you can think of that every time you scratch a mosquito bite or wonder just how many ticks you brought home.
Sandy in Tucson
WOW! You're courageous! We've "talked" about going camping with the children for a couple of years now, but have never done it. I don't know if I could handle it. I'm not an ultra-femine woman, but all the bugs and sleeping in a tent. . .not sounding too good to me! :-p (BTW, we have 5 children ages 11 to 2)
I TOTALLY agree on the privacy glass thing! I never thought of it in a minivan, I just tell my husband we need to invest in a Limo!
Great post!
And that? Is exactly why my idea of "camping" is a Motel 6!!!!
I think that you understand perfectly how much I love camping. The car ride? I could put that stuff to music.
I have found that if I bring my iPod and turn the volume up really loud it works about as well as a glass wall would : )
I got out of camping this school year but I'm sure with two kids in scouts I'll be forced to do it this next year. I love camping, too...
Glad you're back with the rest of us enjoying climate control. :)
"I think all minivans should come equipped with sound-proof glass between the driver's seat and the back of the van (like a limo) standard."
AMEN! I've told DH the same thing. We only have two boys, and they're in the middle seat, but there are times I'm willing to forego all my cargo room in the back (because we took out the back seat) and shove them both as far back as I can get them just for a couple more feet of sound barrier.
I heard from another friend who took her 4 girls camping for the weekend and she sounded a lot like you. Why is it that moms keep going camping when it is so NOT fun for moms? It sounds grand in theory but is all the work of regular life, tripled--1) because you don't have a house or all the things you're used to having 2) because you spend the whole time essentially living in the dirt and 3) the best you can do as far as sending the noisy/messy/fighting people to another "room" is a little wall of canvas between you!
Glad you survived. Until next year, right?
Ugh, sounds like Fun???
We are trying camping with the twins for the first time in a couple of weeks!! Wish us luck!
How hot is it in Chicago in August? I'm coming for a visit on the 14th and don't know how to dress. It's 100 degrees until October here in Mississippi.
::Oh yes, and then there was Clay who kept repeating, "butt crack"::
Heh-heh. You said butt.
(Sorry...channeling my kid for a second there)
So you do or you don't like camping....I'm a little confused. It sounds like you had SO MUCH FUN. Why did you come home????? We've only been once. It was actually a lot of fun when we went. Oh, but that might have been because Captain Morgan came with us.....
I used to be Outdoor Girl, now I'm old and insist on a (real) mattress under my achy joints every night. The Worst Camping Trip Ever - took 27 Jr. Girl Scouts (age approx 12) to the woods for 3 days. (WHAT was I thinking?!!) When we got back 2 of the girls' parents 'forgot' to come pick them up and I had to walk with them and all their gear to their homes about a mile and a half from the pick up point - this was pre-cell phone days - and then had to ASK the parents to PLEASE give me a ride to my house. Good Grief! Actually, I think that was my Last Camping Trip Ever!
Sound proof glass between the front seats and the backseats? Dawn, you should patent that idea. You'd be a millionaire! Parents everywhere would rejoice and pull out their wallets!
I have a question....how do we e-mail you? I've wanted to for awhile but I can't seem to find your e-mail address on your site. I swear I won't stalk you! Well, not anymore than I already do.....
Individual dvd players and headphones. And a trip to the library where they can each check out their own dvds for the trip. I have had good luck getting nice portable dvd players on ebay for less than $50 a piece. (yeah, x6 that is a lot but maybe for xmas or bdays?)
Stop teasing! I want to go now!
;)
Right up with you there on the limo-style glass in minivans - been there, done that and still occasionally need it for the teens!
However, I know why they haven't invented it... the first time some little kid/baby choked, or needed help and it was difficult to get to them, they got hurt, the family would sue and there you go. What we really need is a space-age special thick goo - something to stop sound waves that annoy, but not urgent important noises. Something that we could walk through with a cool "shloop" sound effect. Get on that, eh?
Annette from BC
I feel your pain with the whole travelling with the children when ever we get into the car and have to go anywhere we have a movie going. Its a 7" screen in the middle of the front of the car and I pick the movie that way there is no fighting. Its an enjoyable quite trip then. Mind you we have gone without the movie before and oh boy was I sorry for not remembering a movie. NEVER AGAIN
I LOVE these little slices of life, lol.
I'm just picturing this Simpsonesque scene, coming home in the family Minivan, with each kid contributing different sounds like so many frogs croaking their part in the evening chorus, lol.
Funny stuff, Dawn...as always.
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