We attempted a family camp out for the first time in years Labor day weekend.  It was a test run of just one night because the last time we tried camping as a family it didn’t end well.  See this post: Camp Washout.  In some ways this trip was a success and in some ways it was not.  But I will indeed go camping again even though the campout was not without its problems.

Our two hour drive to Lake Cascade took four+ hours because of a car accident up the road ahead of us.  We finally pulled into the camp ground at 10:00 PM and put up the tent in the dark with the help of the headlights.  We ate our hotdogs and smores and finally got the kids to bed close to midnight.  About five minutes after we crawled into bed it started pouring down rain.  It rained all night long, which meant that the probability of my sleeping in a tent dropped from low to 0.  At least we had put up the rain guard, which I thought I had been my brilliant idea, but Rock informed me the next day that he knew it was going to rain all along and would have put it up without my insistence.  The Punk knew I would’ve backed out if I’d known about the rain so he kept that little secret to himself.  He also kept the port-a-potties to himself too.  So much for his promise of flush toilets.

I laid there listening to the rain, stuck in my straight jacket mummy sleeping bag.  At some point in my life I’m sure a mummy bag was comfortable.  It’s not anymore.  After a while I switched with Reagan for a regular one and the straight jacket feeling lessened, but only slightly.  In the middle of the night, I woke up in excruciating back pain because my nifty air mattress was not doing the trick.  I searched in vain for my keys so I could get some Advil from the car and had to wake Rock up to get his.  At the same time Reagan decided he had to go to the bathroom.  While on his jaunt to the deep, dark, black hole that is a port-a-potty,  he saw some kind of largish animal.  This was apparently exciting for a young boy in the middle of the night while sleeping outside in said animal’s territory, but it was not exciting to me.  I think my trip to the car took less than five seconds total as I pictured being eaten by a mountain lion for a midnight snack.

While the rest of us made our failed attempts at sleep that night, Liberty and Cade snoozed away with no problems.  The sun rose early as it tends to do on campouts, but luckily, all the kids slept till 7:00 am, a record for camping.  The clouds had cleared and the sun was out so we crawled out of our tent to start the day.  Trying to keep little kids quiet in the early morning so as not to disturb other campers is always a challenge and Cade was sent to sit in the van no less than six times before he figured out that he should be quiet.  Just after we had sent him on one of those trips to the car, Liberty yelled as loud as she could, “Why does he keep yelling?!!!!” Despite the noise, we enjoyed bacon, eggs and hot cocoa around the fire for breakfast. Then we spent a relaxing morning fishing, rock throwing and exploring.  

The four hour long road trip.  This is a hug, believe it or not. And yes, that drug induced stare is directed at the DVD player.

Smores at midnight

Hot cocoa for breakfast

Fishing AND rock throwing.  Someday they’ll figure out that combo doesn’t work real well.

With the exception of the very long night, oh, and the very long drive, everything went well!  Cascade is beautiful and it’s always good to get up into the green mountains. We’ll try it again next year and maybe we’ll even go for two days!  Though I’m not sure I can go two days without any sleep.  And next time I’ll check the weather report. 

These last two weeks have been pretty exciting at our house.  We started our homeschool year, Reagan officially started half day at the middle school, Cade and Levi started their one day a week hybrid, charter school where they get to take four elective classes and Liberty started preschool.  Every Wednesday afternoon at exactly 12:30 I will have NO CHILDREN for 2.5 hours!  My ideal has always been to have some school learning and some home learning.  It is only this year that we’ve finally been able to do both!  To celebrate, I went out to lunch with friends! 

As exciting as no kids for a few hours is, it was with some trepidation that I signed Reagan up for middle school.  It’s fantastic that Idaho allows dual enrollment, but it’s still hard to turn your kid over to the public school when you’ve chosen to homeschool because you don’t like the public school.  However, right now, for our family, this is the right thing.  I am hoping it will raise the peace and sanity levels at our house.  Reagan was diagnosed with ADHD recently, something we’ve always suspected but couldn’t get confirmed until now. He is both the audience and the performer in our house, both the distracted and the distractor.  It makes homeschooling very difficult at times.  The house was wonderfully quiet every afternoon this week, but the kids couldn’t wait for him to get home each day.  He had a great first week, though, and I think it will be a good experience for everyone.  He’s taking a home ec/keyboarding/art class , a math class, and PE/Orchestra.  He loves all his classes so far and had his first cross country meet on Thursday.  He came in 36th out of seventy-six 6th, 7th and 8th graders.  His 1.5 mile time was 11:18.  Pretty darn good for a beginner.

It’s been a tough balancing act to juggle all the new activities and places we need to be at different times on top of homeschooling.  I feel like I’m going to drop a ball any minute.  I’ll probably forget to pick someone up or drop someone off.  It’s never the same from day to day.  I realize that is normal for most moms, but not for me. 

I can’t complain, though.  Life is busy and full and my kids still have their mom.  Life can smack you pretty hard in the face sometimes as it did a few days ago when a friend of mine from Duvall suddenly passed away.  She was young, full of life and love. I weep for her three children who are without a mother as they start their new school year.  A light has gone from the earth this week, but heaven is all the brighter for her presence.  God bless you, Kimberly, and thank you for your example.

In Washington we call it a balloon stampede, but here in Boise it’s called the Balloon Classic when a huge number of hot air balloon riders descend upon the city and float their balloons.  It is beautiful and majestic.  And when you are little, it is scary and loud.  When I was around three years old Aunt Janie came to visit us in Walla Walla on her way to college.  My parents took her to the balloon stampede to ride one because she adored hot air balloons.  I remember being absolutely terrified of the loud noise the flame thrower inside the balloon makes and I wouldn’t get in for a ride.  I just remember clinging to my dad with my ears plugged.  We got in the car and chased Aunt Janie’s balloon all over the countryside.  She had a blast, but I didn’t. 

Having outgrown the fear of loud noises long ago, I have wanted a second chance at riding a hot air balloon since I wimped out the first time.  This Wednesday I got my chance. (sort of).  We took the kids to the Balloon Classic on kids day so they could ride a tethered one and I didn’t wimp out this time.  What’s cooler is that neither did Liberty!

 
She was scared of the noise, but she is braver than her mother was and got on the balloon!  This is not a great picture, but here we all are.

Next year I’ll see what I can do about riding one for real!