Campout 2010

Our family has started a tradition. Once baseball is over and the weather cools, we pack our gear, load the pickup, and head to the creek and our favorite camping spot for our yearly family campout.

It started a couple years ago, with at least one of the boys was still in diapers, and we’ve done our best to make it there and back-alive and in one piece-at least one time every fall. This past weekend was the big event.

Now, I’m a lover of nature and campfire coffee and good conversation that lasts well into the night. But I’m no farm girl. I like to stay warm; I avoid things that offend my delicate sense of smell, and…well, I’m a big fan of indoor plumbing. Beyond that, I can handle most anything that they throw at me out there in Comanche County.

That said, I have discovered that as the boys grow, I’ve more to worry about than just the cool night air, the pungent aroma of day old cow manure or “making my own bathroom in the woods” (as Brisco says). I’ve got boys. And as they grow, these boys become, at least in their own minds, invincible, with no limit to what they can find to get into. So much for the peace and serenity of nature.

So on our adventure this year, the campout of 2010, I saw, heard, learned and experienced enough of the great outdoors to last me until next year. I’m already looking forward to it.

1. Work before play. Especially on a campout.

2. Just because you bring them mud boots to wear on the creek, doesn’t mean they will wear their mud boots on the creek.

3. Just because they wear their mud boots in the creek doesn’t mean their feet will stay dry.

4. There is no limit to the number of socks a mother should pack for one night of camping.

5. To do list: invent disposable socks.

6. Who needs a tent to go camping? Just string up a tarp between two pickup beds and call it cozy. Redneck cozy.

7. There really is nothing like seeing your baby curled up and falling asleep in his daddy’s lap in front of a blazing campfire.

8. I do believe our youngest is a pyromaniac. Once the fire was lit, he was dead set on burning every stick on the creek…one at a time.

9. Cooper can literally sleep anywhere.

10. Who says “city girls” can’t shoot a BB gun?

11. Seeing the four year old come up the side of the creek bank with no shoes on is never a good feeling.

12. I am officially the only voice of reason at the Smith house. I caught Cooper and dad just moments before the creation of a chancy contraption which would have had my babies swinging from one side of the creek to the other--a good 30 feet across and 20 feet down--from an old, decaying tree limb on a 15 year old rope. The voice of reason lives on.

13. Repelling is our newest adventure, albeit a simple, slightly more dangerous version of the sport.

14. All the encouragement a little boy needs to be convinced he can climb a big tree is for his mother to get up and do it first.

15. If there was ever a question as to how many marshmallows Brisco can eat at one time…we are currently sitting on a dozen…and counting.

16. Thanks to modern technology, we can still enjoy a Yankee win, even while camping in the middle of nowhere.

17. There really is nothing like a homemade breakfast burrito, prepared in a cast iron pot over a hot fire. You’ll be feeling it for days. Thanks, Uncle Ryan.

18. Brisco’s highlights? “Walkin’ the creek, roastin’ marshmallows, rope swing and climbing the clift.”

19. Cooper’s? “Climbing on the clift, walking across the creek on big logs, and seeing minnows.”

And that’s All in a day’s work!