Yuppy Camping

I woke up this morning to the sounds of birds chirping and a rooster crowing while I was sharing a twin-sized air matress with my 4-year old son and my 9-month-old daughter in a tent, and I thought This is the life! It all began about 6 weeks ago when Jackson mentioned that he wanted to go camping. I placated his request thinking that, like so many of his self-proclaimed great ideas, he would probably forget all about it in a day or so. But that didn't happen. He mentioned camping several times in the following weeks until finally I realized I was going to have to take this kid camping one way or another. Now, I'm not opposed to camping, but considering that Jason and I have only gone camping twice in our adult lives (and those trips were with very experienced campers who pretty much did all the planning and work) the image in my head of my family camping went something like this: Jason and I would struggle to put up a tent, struggle to build a fire (and may not even succeed at that), completely exhaust ourselves, and be pretty miserable. I would do all of this with one hand of course since I would have a 20-pound 9-month-old on my hip the entire trip. I just really didn't see it happening. Finally I had a solution! I called my parents and asked if we could camp in their backyard one night. I figured that Jackson really wanted to have the experience of roasting marshmellows on a fire and sleeping in a tent. All the other details (you know, actually being in the woods, etc.) wouldn't really matter to him. We made the plans, and this weekend we did what I call "Yuppy Camping".

For those of you who are new to the concept, Yuppy Camping is all the fun of camping with all the comforts of being at home. We started this mini-vacation by doing some strawberry picking at a farm close to my parents' house.

Friday night, Jackson played with his cousins in the sandbox and on the swingset, we roasted hot dogs in the fire, and my dad played his favorite oldies songs on the CD player while we made s'mores. While we were waiting for the stars to come out, my mom read books to her grandchildren. We did a little stargazing and then retired to our tents in the yard. (Since I started this post saying that I shared an air mattress with both my kids, I feel the need to say that Selah slept in a pack n play in the tent. She woke up about 5:45 to eat and then went back to sleep in my arms until about 6:30.) Here comes the really yuppy part: When we woke up, we all went inside. The girls played a computer game, while Jackson watched Saturday morning cartoons, and my parents and I made breakfast. We spent the rest of the morning playing outside, picking black cherries out of their tree, riding the golf cart around the farm, and sitting under the shade tree while Jackson and Max played in the tent. It was PERFECT!

I'd give Yuppy Camping experience #1 two thumbs up! Yes, we're tired, but not from hauling coolers of ice or 40-pound backpacks to a campsite. We're tired from spending a full day making tons of memories with a few of the most special people on the earth. That's my kind of camping!