Camping

Camping is for teenagers.

The first time we tried camping with children, we had a Chinese foreign exchange student and I thought we should give him the experience.  The kids were 11 months and just-turned-two.  We got there just after dark and it just happened to be raining.  Matt and my dad put the tent together while the rest of us waited in the car.  The rain stopped--we ate hot dogs in the dark and went to bed.  Titus woke up throughout the night, at one point throwing up his dinner.  The next day it became apparent that our new little walker wanted to get around the campsite and needed shoes.  Drove into the nearest town to get shoes, got stuck in a traffic jam on our way back, ate lunch at the campsite, drove home.  (Don't think our exchange student enjoyed it too much.)

So... this weekend was the family camping trip with our church.  We were hesitant, but I talked to a few people and decided it sounded like a good idea.  Titus has been asking to go camping for a few months now, anyhow.  And I packed a bag of coloring books, crayons, play dough, puzzles, and snacks to keep the kids occupied if we had down time.

The drive was longer than I thought it'd be.  And when we reached our campsite up the mountain, it was 40 degrees colder.  And there was still an hour or two until dark.  I changed the kids (and myself) into warmer clothes.  We got everything set up.  We ate dinner.  And the kids were tired and wanted to go to bed.

We got them situated in our tent and they were really enjoying it, especially Titus.  Kali was tired and just wanted to get to sleep and Ella and Titus were up to antics and kept waking her up.  But eventually they all settled and were out.

Matt and I went to bed closer to 9:30-10:00.  We had discussed buying sleeping bags, but Matt thought all of our comforters would be okay and had brought extras.  We had two at our disposal so we stretched one over our air mattress to insulate a little better and the other over top of us.  And we couldn't get warm.  Both of us, dressed in layers, sharing body heat under a comforter together, we couldn't get warm enough to sleep.  And the air was so cold.  It was too cold for me to breathe it comfortably--another thing keeping me up--so I would try to drape the blanket just right over my face in order to breathe warmer air and not feel suffocated.  Honestly, it was probably a little on the suffocating side, but I was more concerned with keeping warm than anything else.

I was worried the kids were going to freeze.  Each was wrapped in their own comforter, but I took an extra sheet I found and draped it across the three of them to try to help confine some of their body heat together.

At 12:30, I still hadn't slept--it was too cold to fall asleep.  Matt wasn't sleeping well either.  So we moved the comforter from under us so that we would have two on top.  It helped quite a bit.  I was able to almost-sleep for awhile, but we still weren't really warm enough.  And the air mattress was a little chillier that way.  I found the most comfortable position was to tuck my edge of the comforter under my far knee and put most of my weight on that in order to avoid the chillier areas of the mattress.

At 3:00, we woke to the sound of Kali throwing up everything in her stomach.  Heave after heave in the silence followed by her cries.  We went to her and I got her clothes changed while Matt bunched her bedding away from Ella.  Her pillow, blanket, and toy were all covered.  Matt is usually the puke-person; I simply cannot handle it and end up throwing up myself.  But the smell wasn't too bad and the most trying part of the experience was prying Kali's shirt off her arms as my fingers slipped in the vomit on her sleeve.  So we invited her to sleep with us.

Oh, and through all of this, I had been so thirsty and limiting my water intake, even though I had already been up twice before to go to the restroom which was quite a walk away.  And I was up again, which meant I had to go again, so I stopped to get a bottle of water, because at 3:00 am dehydrating myself didn't seem so important anymore.  And since the sleep I had gotten so far probably can't really be called sleep, I was fully awake and alert as I was out and about.

Coming back from the restroom, I ran into Christine.  Who heard Kali throw up and wondered if we need any help.  Who had not slept at all so far due to the cold.  Who has also having trouble breathing the cold air in through her sinuses.  Who was starting the coffee maker at 3:00 in the morning, because that's what you do if you make it to 3:00, awake and on your own.  We chatted for awhile and I would have stayed and kept her company the rest of the night, but the knowledge that the next day was with kids sans sleep was too foreboding.

Getting back onto the air mattress, we now had a little Kali-heater between us.  First she was tucked against me, but later in the night I was on my own in the cold as she was pressed against Matt.  Ever so kindly, Matt offered to share and pushed her back my way.  But the rest of the night on the air mattress was very uncomfortable.  Regardless of which way I slept, it felt like my hip bone was digging into something.  We shared Kali and Matt got up every so often to check on Ella and Titus.

So when morning came we slept as late as could (maybe 7:30?) before packing up, eating breakfast, and leaving for home with another sick teenager to drop off on the way.  (The camping trip should have continued through Saturday and ended on Sunday.)  I was exhausted.  Feeling that tired for a car ride makes you think you'll never reach your destination.  Matt was also incredibly tired, but said he was doing better.

We dropped off our extra passenger and got home just after noon.  Matt watched the kids so I could take a nap.  I went to our guest bedroom, because it's the coolest in the house and immediately fell asleep.  Later, while I was sleeping and the kids were napping, Kali woke up and threw up all over again.  Matt did a million loads of laundry--usually my department--amazing man.

I woke up around 4:30 pm hot.  Like hot.  So hot that I vaguely remembered waking up an hour or two before worried that our little dogs sleeping with me were dead it was so hot.  All of my muscles ached and hurt.  It felt like someone had hollowed out my bones and they could no longer support my body.  I managed to shuffle into our room and collapsed at the foot of our bed.  It was awful.  Honestly, I can't quite remember how awful it was, it was so awful.  I croaked for Matt and I'm pretty sure he brought cold wash clothes and things.  Eventually he got me to the shower when I thought I could stand for awhile.

That helped, but I still felt weak.  And I had a fever that went back and forth all night and stomach issues that went back and forth all night.  And it's continued into today and I now finally feel well enough to sit at my desk tonight.  Don't feel entirely well, but good enough I guess.  Matt's had it rough having total kid watch since we got home yesterday.

Umm, so camping is for teenagers.  The ideal camping situation is to not have many responsibilities and even to have adults taking care of a lot of your needs if possible.

I don't want to go camping again.  Maybe someday.  Maybe not.  At least in our backyard would be okay.  Especially never if I think it's going to be cold.

And just in case any Calvary Chapel peeps find their way here, it was not the fault of the endeavor.  It was not the fault of this trip.  This is us.  Maybe we'll camp again when the kids can take care of us.