I have wanted to take Thomas and Tyler camping at my family’s land since almost 4 years ago when I met them. It’s every boy’s dream. It’s a place where you can be as dirty as you want, cook your dinner over a fire, sleep under the stars, try to catch fish with your bare hands in a creek, watch fireworks, dig holes, wash your hair in the creek and it’s all allowed. My days are often filled with sentences to the boys like “don’t bring your dirty shoes in the house!”, “don’t play in the mud!” Or “don't bring that in the house!” Don’t don’t don’t don’t don’t. And I often feel like all I’m really saying to them is “don’t be a boy”. Don’t make a mess because I’m the one that’s going to have to clean it up. And this is practical and needed to some extent. But every once in a while I believe that it is necessary to let boys be boys. To encourage messiness and mud fights. And that is why I wanted to take them camping.
They have been anxiously awaiting this trip for weeks. For at least two weeks they have been asking me every day how many days until camping day and when they should pack. I was excited to share this experience with them also. I bought them camo everything. Camo shorts, shirts, and hats. Thursday night I packed up my jeep with coolers, water guns, tents, sleeping bags and flashlights. First thing Friday morning I went to pick up Thomas and Tyler. They excitedly got dressed in the camo gear I surprised them with and we were off.
The land is about an hour North of my house and their grandparent’s house. We stopped for breakfast on the way to break up the drive. Everyone in the restaurant loved Thomas and Tyler’s clothes. They were so good for the drive and liked watching the mountains through the windows. I had not shown them pictures of the campsite before we arrived but I had tried to explain it to them but apparently I had not done it justice. We pulled up and they could not jump out of the car fast enough. They looked around and explored the tire swing for a few minutes while I unpacked and turned on the power and water. Then it was time to set up camp. They both helped me put up the tent and excitedly set it up with their sleeping bags and stuffed animals. When that was done we went to play in the creek. I think the creek was their favorite part of the trip. I brought huge water guns into the creek for them to play with and they didn’t even touch them. They just played in the rocks and created hideouts and secret clubs. Tyler had a few minutes of transition into camp life. He kept coming up to me saying “Hannah! My feet are dirty!” “Hannah! My shirt is dirty!” and to his surprise I would say “it’s ok! Get dirtier.” He picked up the idea quickly and soon was happily rubbing mud all over himself.
We played together in the creek for a while and then we made lunch and my mom and dad and grandmommy, granddaddy and Trevor arrived. Trevor had the same transition period as Tyler did. He did not like the dirt at first but about two minutes later he was loving it. We had a water balloon fight and Trevor loved that. Grandmommy and granddaddy got a tour of the land from Thomas and Tyler and had hotdogs cooked over the fire. After dinner we gave Trevor a bath and grandmommy and granddaddy had to take him home to sleep. Then we all made smores and Thomas and Tyler watched my dad and I set off some small fireworks. After that it was bed time and after everyone took their showers Thomas, Tyler and I piled into our tent. I expected them to get into the tent and then decide they would rather sleep in the camper with my mom and dad, but they didn’t. Tyler got a little scared because Thomas wanted to tell scary stories but we talked it out and eventually all got to sleep.
They slept until about 8:20 and then we got up and made a yummy breakfast of eggs, pancakes, and bacon. Right after that we were back in the water. They convinced my dad to take us tubing - which is basically floating in an inner tube down the river to a specific point and then having my mom pick us up and drive us back to the campsite.
They loved that. I had tyler’s tube connected to mine and at one point he looked at me and said “Hannah can we keep going?” and I said “yes” then he said “I love you”. When we got back to the campsite from tubing we packed up the tent and loaded up my car then took showers and got ready to leave. On the way home we stopped at Mercier’s apple orchards and picked up some peaches and caramel apples. About halfway home Tyler passed out hard, Then when we were about 15 minutes away Thomas fell asleep too. Tyler will nap occasionally but it is extremely rare for Thomas to nap. They were all played out. They decided they want to do this again every weekend.
We had an awesome trip!
