Posts from — September 2008

Starting at Labor Day weekend, Joel had two weeks off. We went camping. We weren’t sure how it would work with the girls, but we wanted to give it a try. So we bought a big tent, loaded up the van, left town, and hoped for the best. We thought it might last for a couple nights at most, but it went well enough that we spent eight nights in the tent. The girls seemed to enjoy it, and they experienced many new things, such as swimming in a lake, lots of bugs and caterpillars, being around lots of trees, seeing how dark it gets at night, and eating marshmallows every day. The weather was perfect for camping, except for three nights that we spent in a hotel due to thunderstorms in the forecast.

We wanted to know if camping would really be a relaxing enough way to spend an away-from-home vacation. We found it to be a lot more work than just staying in a hotel, but it was worth it in so many ways. We learned a lot about each other and working together and communicating. . . imagine that. . . even after ten years of marriage. We made memories for our family that go way beyond what you could ever experience in a hotel vacation. . . even just getting the chance to be outside all day, cooking outside, enjoying campfires at night, and waking up inside a tent every morning.

I think our low-key approach helped make it work. . . if it’s going to thunderstorm, then we’ll stay in a hotel tonight. . . if this campground’s too noisy, we’ll move to a different one. I have to admit that Joel’s iPhone really helped us with our on-the-go trip-planning, mapping, laundromat and grocery store finding needs.

We also learned that all the New York State Parks have really great playgrounds, at least the ones we visited.

More to come.