The Joys of Camping : (

Now, I want to start off by saying that I love; and I mean love nature. However this past weekend nature and I were not so in tune with each other. Last Friday we packed our camping gear and headed to the mountains. Joanne and Bob (the in-laws) were already there set up at the site next to ours. When we got there it was nightfall and had to set up in the dark...no surprise there! But we did it and settled in. That night while laying in the tent, that holds no heat. I lay there on the air mattress with Austin looking at the pretty silhouette of the leaves and bright moonlight. I fell asleep and so did Austin, Charley stayed up for a while with Bob and Joanne. Now I have stayed in the mountains before, but in a camper. As I mentioned earlier a tent holds NO heat. So a few hours into our slumber we were freezing, especially Austin because he had no pajamas packed. I woke up several times that first night because I could feel the goose bumps on Austin's little legs. I kept trying to fall back asleep until I heard "something". Leaves and branches were cracking and I thought to myself, "something is out there". At this point I lay in the middle of Charley and Austin and tried to keep calm. Next thing I know I hear heavy breathing right behind our tent. It took me a second to muster up some courage to lift my head to look. When I looked over at Charley I came to the conclusion it was him breathing heavy. I still decided to wake him and ask if the food was put in the car and not laying around the campsite, just for my comfort. He said yes.

The next morning my mother-in-law and I went to the bathrooms and I told her my story. She laughed and said it was funny because Charley had said they same thing to them about hearing something breathing outside of our tent, but he thought it was me breathing. Ha! I came to the conclusion it was a bear! I am positive! They all laughed at me, but I know. The day time was beautiful, cool and crisp and clear. Just beautiful! Charley and Austin tried to fish and we the rest of us just relaxed. We took a lot of family walks and even played on the playground.... All of us! (I have pictures of this). Joanne and I saw a squabbit, it is my best description of the animal I saw. It was the size of a small rabbit or large squirrel, but it had a stubby tail and short ears. So to me it's a squabbit. We also played charades as a family, including Austin. My child is too funny, having never played this game he kind of made up his own rules. We let him talk to say how many words were in the thing he was acting out and he was allowed to verbally confirm the word if we got it. Austin says "First word" and he acts out riding a motorcycle. We guessed it and he continued on to another act, after we guessed the first three words in the title I stopped him. I said, "Austin how many words are in your title?". He said "45!". Needless to say, we stopped the game.

last thing we did on this trip was drive through the mountains to see the trees changing colors. That was beautiful, and it was a nice drive. There are many more cute details of this trip but, I don't want to write a novel. Until next time, bye Y'all!!

P.S. Congrats to Sarah and Lee, they are having a boy!