Summer Camping

Somehow I got the brilliant idea to take the kids camping in Texas, in the summer, in the 100 plus degree weather. What was I thinking? I thought this will be perfect. It's only an hour or so away, it's a nice place to camp, they have dinosaur footprints, Dinosaur World, and we can cool off and play in the river near by. So away we went on our little adventure. We found a great camp site, got everything set up just the way we wanted it, and decided to head straight to the river to cool off. As we hiked down to the river, I thought to myself, how lucky we are that it doesn't seem very crowded. As we went around the bend to our dismay all we saw was a very dry river bottom with only a tiny, stagnant, pool of water! No wonder we were the only ones. Oh shoot-no water and Rob had already booked us for two nights .

There was no way we were going home in defeat. My mind raced as I tried to figure out just how we were going to survive this summer camp out with just me and the kids in the blistering heat without water to cool off in. We drove down to the office relishing in the air conditioning and I asked them if there was a local lake or pool. We were in luck, there was a local pool that was open until 8pm. I was so overjoyed. We all hopped in the car and followed the map to the pool. That pool was to be our salvation for the next two days. We had a lot of fun, just the five of us, playing in the water for hours on end. Maybe it was better than the river!

We made S'mores over our little camp stove (we couldn't build a fire because of the burn ban) and told stories. We had fun just being silly and trying to get to sleep in the insane heat. We did bring a fan which did help a little bit. After a delicious breakfast of blueberry pancakes and bacon we headed to Dinosaur World. It was pretty much a rip off, but hey it gave the kids something to do and I think the younger really one's enjoyed it. They got to dig in the sand and keep three things that they found. This made Eden very happy.

We were hot and very sweaty when we weren't in the pool, but we made the best of it. Sometimes I would ask, "Why are we doing this?" One of the kids would answer," because we are die hard campers and we can do anything." They were right, we can. It ended up being quite the adventure-we played games, sang songs, set up a tent, cooked over a camp stove, told stories, made fun of Lauren's cot falling down over and over again, and just had a good time. I am thankful for kids who are willing to go camping in Texas, in the summer, with their mom. They amazed me with their helpfulness and how much they really can do all on their own. Maybe we will try it again, in the fall. We sure were glad to be back home, in our own comfy beds, with air conditioning.