Tuesday, November 17, 2015

:: 2015 Camping Recap:: The Good, the bad & oh yes, the Ugly!


{Photo credit: A nice lady riding her bike up the hill and needing a rest. So, she took our picture.}

My Husband always, always thinks I don't ever share the bad and of course the absolute ugly on my blog. I tell him, then you must not read my blog. I try to be as open and transparent as I can here. Always sharing truth and who we really are, if you ever ::laughs here:: think we are "perfect" please don't. We most definitely are far from that. Mini-disclosure over. 

This past weekend we went Camping. While, we love the idea of it and have now completed a couple of successful trips. I am sharing with you today, the Good, the bad and the oh yes so ugly! To help  my Husband sleep at night and rest at peace with our imperfections. Always.




::The Good::

Usually out weighs the bad. I don't care how bad things get, you can always come out on top with the absolute best moments. That's what matters. My Husband said, just take the picture cause you will make it seem like we had an amazing time anyway. Of course! Ha. But, truth is while the good is present the bad is always lurking near by, HA. I am never lying about our good moments or trying to hide the bad, it's just that I want to always give people good happy content, not whiny, complaints. And, when it's appropriate I share our bad moments, cause we do have them. 

Family time- our days get busy and the nights are short, so spending family time together just the 4 of us, is always good. We don't sit around and sing kumbaya or anything {if we could we would but that's not us}, we do share and love one another a lot. Listening to the kids and their crazy stories or rants is always priceless. My Husband and I will stare at each-other thinking, where in the world is this coming from? It's epic ya'll. 

Time away- it's good to disconnect and get away from the city for a bit. Little short vacations help bring back focus and forget about the hectic city life that awaits us. Even my kids are busy between school, sports, homework and annoying one another it gets tough for a 6 and 4 year old to find down time. Just laughed. It's not but they are busy kids and deserve a break too. We all do! 

New experiences- We all deserve new experiences, they help us grow and learn more about the world and more importantly about ourselves. We love being able to provide our children with new experiences. Some are even new to us and that's always fun, learning with our kids is a great adventure.




::The Bad::

Things don't always go as planned- they rarely go on without a hitch. This time, and it seems like every time we are traveling, our car {s} break down. Thankfully this time it was just a battery issue. We got the truck to work but there is always something that doesn't go as planned and could potentially ruin our trip. Car trouble is a bad one though. 

Last minute changes- so, while we love the outdoors and camping we are not expert campers and have not been doing this for years. Our kids are usually great at whatever we throw at them but this time we had to make an executive decision to switch the desired camp site at Lost Maples to Garner { more in part 2 of recap on this and why}. We also had planned for my parents and friend to join us, which didn't happen. We had to re-plan food and our minds as a whole, ha. 

The weather- the forecast had rain and cold. And, it did. Rain and it was cold. Which due to some unpreparedness was rough the first night! But, thanks to my Sister-in-law we got it all fixed by night two. Which was great. It didn't totally ruin our trip but by Sunday morning it was a nuisance and we were a little annoyed by the rain. But, we survived and all was well.





::The oh SO very Ugly::

The whining, complaining and fighting...and that was just the adults! Remember I mentioned the mishap above with the camping site. Yeah, it was kind of my fault. I didn't book the site in time so we ended up with a "Primitive" camp site at Lost Maples, not at all what we wanted. I had to last minute book a site at Garner. Which was tricky but I pulled it off. It didn't come without the stress, the fighting words and the blah. So much so, I forgot our big blankets and the first night had to rough it out with small blankets and sleeping bags. Again, thankfully my Sister-in-law came to the rescue! 

Mood swings- this kind of trip involves long hours together, in a car or small space! Which in return results in mood swings, one minute we love one-another the next, it's Hunger Games all in one small tent. Camila and I get moody. Please beware. Ha. The boys do to! So, it's an even game. 

Ugly cries- Not just mine, the kids have their moments too, ha. They can't control it and cry. Sometimes a lot. I get nervous easily and the sweats kick in. I don't want to be seen as a bad parent who can't control their kids! I get anxious. I  do very well though at controlling the situations and deal with them. But, most times I hand it over to my Husband. Much easier. 

Tantrums- Every second, after every activity! OK, maybe not that bad but they do happen and it's not pretty. We deal with them as they come. People stare. We have gotten used to them. We have learned that to diffuse them we must first ignore them, easier said than done. Some moments it's easier to gain control and others you just want to lose it with them. But. for the most part we have learned to remain calm and simply...let it be. 

Hair pulling, fighting and biting- The kids love each other but the car ride and then being with each-other constantly for 3 days, becomes a bit much. As much as I would love for my children to be nice, sweet children who sit still and never fight. It doesn't happen. They get unruly, we control it and sometimes if they are outdoors, we just let them figure it out. If it gets too bad we stop them but for the most part it's harmless, they annoy one another and then move on. Then they have moments of happy, "I love you and lets be friends". Which are my favorite. 


And, I think Jim Gaffigan, has captured all of our camping trips in one big joke....

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