This weekend we went camping. Before you grow envious, realize that it was only for one day. These are the steps we followed to camp for one day:

• took trailer out of storage, cleaned it, prepped it
• loaded trailer with enough food & drinks for 2 weekends
• packed enough clothes for monsoons or sudden arctic temps
• took quads out of storage and loaded them onto a trailer behind my car
• gathered all the kids for the 30-minute trek to Hungry Valley in 2 cars 
• unpacked trailer as if on a 2-week stint; we looked like we were there to stay

We rode quads, Rob cooked fajitas, we went to bed.  We woke up, ate breakfast, rode quads.  Then?  We packed up the entire trailer and quads, turned around and came home. We unloaded the entire trailer, stored the quads, and made an appointment to get the refrigerator and hot water heater inspected by a professional, since neither one fired up this trip.

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I sleep better in my trailer bed than in any bed in any house or hotel.  There's something about it that works like a Tylenol PM.  Camping is the only time I can get in bed before Rob, who, on this trip, asked if I had taken a sleeping pill because I fell asleep so hard so fast.  It was a pleasant sleep for a while, about 5 minutes, before the circus began:

1. "Mom, I need a pillow.'  It was Jarret, who'd forgotten his pillow, so I had to awaken and take one of my pillows out of the decorative sham. Next, 10 minutes later...
2. "Oh, great," Rob mumbled, just loud enough for me to hear.  See, I was in the bed, but all of our clothes are beneath the mattress, which you have to raise like the hood of a car to access.  I rolled to the floor and let him get his shorts for bed, then rolled back under the sheets.  6 minutes later...
3. (sound of running water)  "Sorry, Mom," said Jordyn, who had to wash her face.  No problem... 12 minutes later...
4. "Dana, why isn't this outlet working?"  I had managed to fall back asleep while Rob was showering, but then he couldn't figure out how to get Jaisyn's mattress to inflate.  "Because that outlet doesn't work very well," I said of the cigarette-lighter type outlet he was trying to use.  7 minutes later...
5. "Mom, what's this on my shorts?" Jarret again, this time turning on the light for me to examine a substance that looked much like syrup on his red shorts.  My eyes burned beneath the glaring light... but I assured him that we were camping and he would have to wear yucky shorts.  10 minutes later...
6. Rob comes to bed, and the entire trailer begins to shake with laughter over something he said, and I, drifting in and out of the best sleep I have ever had, couldn't help but start to chuckle, too.

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We got home on Sunday at 4:00, as Hungry Valley is down at Gorman, just a little over 30 minutes away.  So, ya....all this preparation for a 30 min. trip out of town for one night.  And yet, another camping trip of great memories, even though the second the older kids got home, they showered and headed out to see friends, their parents and the ATV trip quickly forgotten.

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I met Rob at the Sizzler at the Ice House on August 10, 1988. Today, after we unpacked from our long vacation, we went back to the scene of the crime and celebrated our first 20 years together.