Camping Makes Memories...mowing the lawn does not

Our family went camping over the weekend and had a great time. It was actually one of the more memorable trips I have every made. I am sure Tiff will tell you all more about it.

Tiffany and I aren't much for camping. Tiffany probably doesn't care much for it because I have very little interest in it. I feel like I have some valid reasons for my dislike though.

1-It takes for ever to get ready. Everyone is so cranky by the time they get piled into the car that they have no interest in spending "family" time in the dirt, smoke, weeds, and stuffy tents.

2-Dirt! My genetics (allergies) make spending long periods of time covered in dirt difficult. It usually takes me a week or so to recover.

3-Smoke ! It takes a week or so to recover from the smell in my hair and body! You can at least wash off dirt but smoke really has to wear off. So even if you get home and shower "clean" you still smell like camping.

4-Bugs and weeds--enough said.

5-Sleeping out in the wilderness. I am sure that we have done this to ourselves, but our kids have a hard time sleeping. It is hard enough to get bedtime done in a warm house in their own beds, but when you are expected to put them to bed in a cold confined space that is a very different story.

6-Cooking! It takes twice as long to cook the same food as if you cooked it at home and it takes
twice as long to clean it up. You say that eating something when you are camping tastes better than it does at home BUT that is because you are twice as hungry because you worked twice as hard and waited twice as long.

7-Unpacking... The only cool thing about unpacking is that it means your done camping for hopefully another year or so.

With all of the bad that comes with camping there is something you can take away from it that you cannot take from many other activities.

MEMORIES...

Looking back at my years growing up, I spent lots of weekends going to bed late, sleeping in, eating pancakes, watching Saturday morning cartoons, and then complaining while my parents struggled to get maybe 1 hour of good work out of me during the afternoon. My memories of those weekends might be summed up in two events. One, if me and my siblings worked really hard, we sometimes got to go to McDonald's for Happy Meals. And two, one time I built a skunk trap that actually caught a skunk. Not a lot of memories for 100's of weekends during my childhood.

I do recall specifics from every camping trip that I went on. Jason nearly drowned and was saved by a stranger, My dad repaired a ruptured radiator hose with an oil can and a bungy chord, I had an encounter with a snake and after about 5 feet of running, tumbled end over end nearly all the way down a mountain. I would have gone all the way down, but I was caught by a tree. I could go on and on about my camping memories.

As parents we have a responsibility to offer those experiences to our children. Part of me would rather put all of the time spent camping into my lawn, garden, or house. Doing that would give me something to look at after the weekend is over. Doing that would also only leave me with memories after I leave this world because I would not have built up and held on to the only thing I could take with me. My family is worth all of the dirt, weeds, stuffy tents, smoke, snakes, and all of the other discomforts that come with camping. As long my kids are happy and having fun, so am I!