Weekend Woes

I've decided that we could have prevented this summer's drought had we just camped every day. Yes, we attempted to camp this weekend. To our credit, it was supposed to be beautiful and then the dang weathermen changed the forecast on Thursday. Friday night was actually great. R and I sat around the campfire until about 1 am and the weather was PERFECT. It was that "crisp, cool, need a sweatshirt and a fire" kind of night. Ahhhhhh. Of course, that all came to a screeching halt when it started raining a few hours later. It was that "steady, constant, not quite a downpour but not gonna stop any time soon" kind of rain. Which was still going strong at 10 am when we finally pulled out. Bleh. It was our shortest camping trip ever but there were plenty of moments to remember.

1. When my newly potty trained little lady woke at 5:45 to tell me she had to pee, I quickly won the "Worst Mommy Moment" award. It was raining, it was early, I was warm and sleepy. "You have a pull-up on. Just go." Even worse is that she did and didn't bat an eye. I think an hour later when Big Sis and I needed to go (next time maybe we'll all wear pull-ups) I changed her. Go ahead, judge me. I totally would. :)

2. The tent leaked a little, nothing like before and we all stayed dry. However, the girls still wanted to climb up onto our cots. I commented that there didn't seem to be as much room this time with KeKe on there (She's declared that she doesn't like "Stinkus" anymore.) Sassy: "I know! I think Dad must have gained some more weight." Oh my. I laughed. And laughed.

3. A little while later when Daddy and Sassy got up, KeKe ran over to grab the empty cot. She hunkered down in the sleeping bag, sniffed the air rather dramatically and announced: "I smell toot. . . Daaaaaaaaddddddd!" HAHAHAHA! Poor Daddy.

4. I was pleasantly surprised that despite waking up at 5:45, the girls kept themselves busy while R and I "slept in." It was pretty sweet to see them laying in bed reading, coloring, and playing board games. And even sweeter to roll over and doze for a little while later. Too bad I didn't have a pull-up on. I could have made it for HOURS.

5. Despite all the stuff I packed, it was inevitable for boredom to set in. And when it did, apparently our girls see cots and an air mattress as WWF arenas. Sometimes I'm not sure we truly had girls. They were jumping off the cots, body slamming each other, leg wrestling. You name it. Of course, it was great incentive for me to get the cots and mattress packed up. . .

6. I realized once again how very blessed we are to have R. He made umpteen trips back and forth to the tent to load everything up, carried the girls under a poncho, and then while we three sat in the truck, he took the entire tent down in that "steady, constant, not quite a downpour but not gonna stop any time soon" kind of rain. I looked out at one point, and my dear husband was LAUGHING. Laughing. I opened the door quickly--yikes, I'm getting wet!--and yelled, "What are you laughing at?!" He turned with the most beautiful grin and shrugged: "What are you gonna do?" I was so touched by his attitude. Had the shoe been on the other foot, I would have been snapping tent poles, throwing, kicking, cursing, and wadding the whole thing up in a giant mess. But there was R. Laughing. And ever so carefully taking everything apart, folding it up, and loading everything as if it was the most beautiful day ever. And he's right--What are you gonna do? Not like we could control the weather. I'm so grateful for him. The day could have been so much different had he let it ruin his mood.

7. On the drive home, we were all kind of in a funk about having to pack up. Sassy was crying because she had wanted to make campfire donuts, so then I bribed her with Sonic French toast sticks before I remembered that we had two kayaks strapped to the top of the truck and fitting under the roof at Sonic probably wouldn't happen. Cue more tears. . . Then we came up on a wreck that looked pretty bad. And suddenly our "bad day" wasn't anything close to a bad day. We were all together and we were safe, just a little soggy and tired.

8. Home sweet home only lasted about an hour. Right after we fixed our "camp" breakfast in the kitchen, but BEFORE we had showers, the power went out. I wish I was kidding. Luckily it came back on about thirty minutes later. And I'd had some coffee so it was a little easier to take. :)

9. I'm pretty sure I jinxed us with the rain because I started packing really early in the week and I'm almost positive that we didn't forget anything this time. Next time we plan a trip, I'll be sure to procrastinate and forget something like I usually do.

10. We still got together with the friends that we had planned to camp with--after all, we already had dinner and dessert planned! It was great to catch up, even if we weren't gathered around a campfire. We may TRY to go again this fall--summer seems too far away!--but it might stay too cool. And I'm sure it will rain.

Hole In One

I love that my girls have each other. There's nothing like a sibling. Although there were definitely some rough moments getting along when we were younger, (hairbrush throwing, brother kicking the bottom panel out of my bedroom door, that same door being thrown open hard enough to leave a doorknob-sized hole in my wall. . . ) I'm so grateful for my siblings. Now that we're all adults, we have such great relationships. We don't get to see each other very often and we probably don't talk as often as we should, but when we get together, we truly enjoy each other. Of course, it might be because we live hours apart. . . We probably prove the adage: Absence makes the heart grow fonder. ha!

The older the girls get, the more I love seeing them interact. They carry on entire conversations in the backseat that I'm not even part of (and I'm sure as teenagers, there will be MANY more of these.) They build Lego houses, forts, and zoos. They draw, paint, and cut (thankfully just paper--no one is missing any hair. Yet.)

Of course, it's not perfect harmony 24/7. Sassy likes to play in her room--alone. With the door shut and a broken-hearted little sister on the other side. Stinkus likes to color, tear, knock down, erase, paint, eat, etc anything that's special to Big Sis. She's also been known to scratch, pinch, bite and hair-pull when she's all fired up. Sassy is sometimes not as gracious to share but thinks all of Stinkus's toys are fair game. Somedays there are total meltdowns because the other sister got the pink plate at dinner or I was supposed to get the other one out of the bath first. It's enough to make ME want to put a hole through a wall.

The other night, I was getting dinner going and I noticed it was REALLY quiet. Which is usually a bad sign. It means that Sassy is playing in her room and Stinkus is doing something that she shouldn't be. I was pleasantly surprised to find that not only were they playing together, they were working on building a miniature golf course in the front room.

I love that they were looking at normal, everyday toys and determining how they could be used.

I love how creative they are--and that they don't rely on TV or us to entertain them (I see a lot of kids at school who expect this every day.)

I love that Sassy was showing Stinkus how to hit the ball.

I love that when it was Stinkus's turn she would say, "Ok, focus, focus. . . " And then still not hit it the right way.

I love that they were playing together and that no one was throwing a hairbrush.

Afternoons aren't always like this, but these sweet moments remind me that we've given the girls the best gift ever for the future: each other.