Wet tent

I love going camping. It brings back fond memories of my childhood when we world head up to Skyline Drive and stay at one of their campgrounds. Plenty of hiking, wildlife and s'mores- good times. Jeremy does not share this sentiment. He tells me that years of camping at KOA's as a child to save money has ruined the whole experience for him, so he never wants to go. We've only gone once with the boys, but it was to a local campground that was far from authentic, so since the weekend held no big plans, I presented the camping option. Earlier this week they were calling for rain this weekend, but Friday night when we checked the forecast, it showed nothing but sunny skies- perfect! After much arm twisting I finally convinced Jeremy that we might actually have a little fun and he gave in. So Saturday we packed up our tent and sleeping bags and headed out into the wilderness. We did not let the sibling squabbles in the back seat dampen our moods and once we got to our campsite, we put up the tent, which was surprisingly easier than the last time, and went on a little hike just around the campground. We saw several deer, one right beyond our tent and even saw a black bear from the safety of our car. We cooked up a healthy meal of hot dogs, macaroni and cheese and baked beans and watched a movie in the back of the car. When it was finally dark we curled up in our sleeping bags and passed out. That's when the fun began.

At 2:30 Jeremy and I were awakened by thunder. Then came the rain, harder and harder. The lightning flashed so bright in one instance and the sound of thunder so loud and immediate that I was certain a tree was bound for our tent. I prayed that the rain would stop and soon it did. I had almost fallen asleep again when the second round of storms hit, just as hard and strong. This is when I started to feel the drops on my head. I pulled my arm out and felt that my sleeping bag was covered in dampness. Our tent was leaking! Who the heck makes a tent that is not waterproof? I remembered that I had put two picnic blankets in the tent and used one to cover up Mason's pack and play and one to cover up my head, and I just hoped that the boys on the other side of the tent were dry. It rained the rest of the night and I contemplated numerous times how much rain it would take for me to wake up Jeremy and tell him we just had to get out of there. Amazingly enough, the kids did not wake up, even with that loud bang of thunder. Mason did get up early, but early enough that I just put him in my sleeping bag and he fell back asleep. I cannot say the same for myself. I didn't fall back asleep all night. I worried about the kids and about what we had left out all night, like the firewood we had purchased for our breakfast. At about 5:30 Cameron woke up freezing because his shirt was completely soaked. Somehow I managed to get him his sweatshirt and get him back in bed and asleep but soon Gavin was awake and needing to go potty. Our wood was useless and my spirit dampened by the turn of events. Why did we come camping? Jeremy was right all along. We were dirty, we were wet, we were cold and we had no food because we had no fire. My clothes were the only ones that were in a puddle in the corner. I wanted to go home, I was exhausted. But Jeremy didn't let me give up. We snacked on some pop tarts and when the store nearby opened we bought some more wood and made our pancakes. The sun came out and started to dry things off and warm us up. We went on some walks, played some games and then packed up our stuff so we could go hiking. The boys were troopers and hiked two miles to a pretty waterfall. We drove along Skyline drive and were in awe of all of the green that the recent rain had made possible. It was breathtaking. At 4 we met up with 7 other families from church that had planned to come up for a picnic in the woods. It was great fun and the kids just ran wild. Cameron and I even got a glimpse of a baby deer that had just been born and his mother. We ate great food and enjoyed great company. I was glad we stayed, but man oh man it will be a long time before I get that camping itch again. Like a really long time.