A Bad Beginning...

We've been meaning to take the girls out camping for a long time now.  Camping is one of the few things that Christian and I really enjoyed doing. We used to go all the time. We haven't really gone out since we began having kids. We took Emily out once when she was maybe 18 months old. It was during the late summer. There was a freak snow storm where we went and ended up in a motel. We came back to record heat in Riverside...so typical.

We decided that we were not equipped really to take children out. We set about to get more family friendly equipment. Then Caitlyn arrived. We postponed our camping for some time again. I don't relish the idea of nursing a baby in the middle of no where and waking up at all hours of the night in a tent.

The years flew by. Last year I was determined that we should go before the kids get too soft and squeamish to rough it out in the woods. We were sick all summer. We did manage to get car camp one night in the desert with our neighbor last fall but it was not enough to satisfy me. It just gave us a taste of what we were missing.

So, we were determined to go this summer come hell or high water. We decided not to make any big long plans...they never work out. We decided within a week that we would go and figured out the when, where and how. My back was bothering me for a week or so but it was nothing I could not endure. The Saturday before going, we had a bbq for dinner and the kids were swimming. They got cold after a while and tried to restart the fire in the fire pit on their own. They made me nervous so I went to help them restart the fire. I tweaked my back doing it. I got the fire started but I had to go in a lie down afterwards, I could barely move. It was so painful. I spent the next two days slowly stretching it out and doing a lot of lying down. Thankfully, Christian took an extra day off on Monday just to prepare and pack up. We were to leave Tuesday. I figured if worst came to worst, we could always just car camp this time...at least we would get out there.

But slowly, my back started to get back to normal so I thought maybe I could make it...if only Christian helps me put my pack on and helps me up and down. It's not like we were going to go on a very rigorous trip the first time out for the girls.

That last night before leaving, Christian spent watering all our plants so that they would not spontaneously combust while we were away and I spent late into the night, cooking our next night's meal and packing.

We were up later than we should have been. We both started to feel like we were coming down with something. In the middle of the morning, I had an extreme sinus attack. I was sneezing and blowing my nose for about an hour. Finally, Christian had to go into the living room to try to get some sleep. It was bad. When my sinus started to settle down, my throat started to bother me...then I started to itch all over?! It was a nightmare. It seems rather unbelievable when you think about it. It felt rather unbelievable having gone through it. It was exacerbating. Needless to say, we were exhausted by morning.

But nothing was going to stop us. We got a late start, but at last, we were finally on the road. The actual trip later...I'm still sorting through the pictures.