Family Time

I camped out Friday night with Deanna's Little Sister's Group. The Leader's husband went out to the lake early in the day and set up their pop-up camper. He had decided we needed to use the pop-up instead of tents for a variety of reasons. But the camper wasn't large enough for all the girls and the 3 female chaperones, so the Leader borrowed our family tent, as well.

I was assigned to sleep in the tent with 4 of the girls, Deanna and three others slept in the camper. We had a wonderful time. I really do love camping.

Upon our arrival home, I received a phone call from one of the Moms.

"My daughter left her glasses in the tent last night," she told me. I laid the tent out in the backyard, opened the door, and climbed in to fish out the offending glasses. As I stood there looking at the tent, the thought occurred to me that the boys hadn't gotten to partake of this great adventure. And they love to camp as much as Deanna and me. So, I hatched a plan. It took Don a little while to agree to it, but we camped out as a family in the backyard Saturday night.

I took the kids to Wal-Mart in the afternoon to buy blow-up camp mattresses for the boys and get them out of the house so Don could nap (he's not sleeping well at night these days - he could use a lot of prayer), and I thought about how much I wanted a campfire. The kids and I decided to try and borrow a fire kettle from friends and I bought two bundles of wood and the fixin's for S'mores at Wal-Mart. On the way home, we stopped and invited Grandma and Grandpa to join us for dinner on the deck and S'mores around the campfire after.

I quickly finished preparing the tent (blowing up air mattresses with the compressor and digging out sleeping bags for everyone from the toy room), made a nice dinner or pan-fried chicken, boiled parsley potatoes, and corn with lemon, built and started the fire so the coals would be ready for marshmallow roasting, and we ate on the deck.

After dinner and clean-up (which was WAY easier in the house than at a campsite), we all sat around the fire, threw a few more logs on, and ate S'mores to our heart's content. We invited the sons of a neighbor to join us, then sent one of them back home for their mom. God forbid she miss out on this great time. It was getting dark and the kids wanted to play tag. They sprawled out across the backyard while the adults sat around and sang camp songs. The neighbors went home and a single friend of ours came by to visit. Grandma and Grandpa left, Don went in, the kids got ready for bed, and my friend and I sat around the campfire and visited.

It was an amazing night. The weather was cool, the moon was full, and we were comfortable in our little family tent. We had great fellowship with family and friends, which wouldn't have happened anywhere but the backyard. And we had a family adventure that ranks up there with our favorite pastimes.

I gotta get me one of those fire kettles.