roughin' it!!

you all may want to sit down for this one........we went camping this weekend!!! yes, i said camping - tent, fire, no showers, no flushing toilets, the whole shabang --we roughed it!! and i can honestly say i really enjoyed it! camping in the wonderful northwest is so different from camping in the great state of kansas. as a kid, my family spent most of the summer months camping, and to be perfectly honest i didn't much mind it when i was younger, but as i got older i became less and less impressed with bugs, outdoors, and being hot and sticky. so with that image of camping in this now city-fied gal's head, you can imagine my enthusiasm when my guys brought up the idea of camping last week. it went like this "mom you'll love it... we'll sleep in a tent, make our food on the fire, and eat smores!" with a kid that excited i said, "yeah that sounds great -- i really like smores!" the whole while thinking,"and i love bugs, dirt, and especially being really gross for days --yeah sign me up!" but my guys were soooo excited, so i pasted my happy - can't wait to go rough it smile on and started getting ready! the next few days were spent buying some essentials we didn't have - lantern, firewood, extra cast iron pans, camp food, and whatever else we couldn't camp without. we loaded the army on friday afternoon and headed out - hoping to beat the friday afternoon traffic...yeah right, beat the traffic! our 2.5 hour trip to la wis wis campground took about 3.5 hours, but when we finally arrived i could tell this was not going to be like any camping i had ever done before! when i hopped out of the army, the air was so cool and there was a wonderful breeze going through the trees -- not even a hint of humidity or swarms of bugs in the air! while taking in the fresh mountain air, we got the tent all set up, fire started, and some pork chops on the grill. we enjoyed a great meal, and finished our evening off with smores!!! yum-o!! this was grady's first experience with smores - and i can safely say he is a smore lover just like gabe and i! after a cool and fairly restful nights sleep - i say fairly because we rarely sleep with our children - and that proved to be interesting! it seems grady likes to sleep everywhere except his sleeping bag..on gabe's head, on top of me..just wherever he lands! even so we all woke up the next morning ready for the day. we feasted on pancakes and bacon and then headed off to explore the campground. we hiked down to the cowlitz river, and up through the forest to some running waterfalls. the water was very cold, but very clear and tasted better than any water we had ever tasted! after dining on hotdogs for lunch we ventured outside of the campground to the pacific crest trail for some more hiking, but unfortunately all we took away from that were bug bites! for some reason that is the only area we were bothered by mosquitos -- but they were everywhere, so that hike only lasted about 30 minutes! we headed back to la wis wis and found an area where we could lounge by the river. the boys got in and waded around, but mainly we were just entertained by the fools that thought they could out smart the fast flowing current! we had the opportunity to witness a rescue of two men and a dog! what an exciting afternoon! we then headed back for some rest and play and more eating...yes, we did a lot of this! after dinner we enjoyed more smores and another night of wrestling grady in the tent! we woke up bright and early the next morning and headed home -- we left at around 6 a.m. - for one we wanted to make it back to church and secondly that shower was calling my name!!! i have never been so happy to feel water hit my face -- i was actually hysterically laughing because i was so happy to wash my hair! how sad!! but even through the funky smelling toilets, no bath, everything having the faint aroma of a campfire...i excitedly asked on the way home...when are we going again?