Camping

I went camping last weekend with my church at Mineral Wells State Park.

It's a beautiful park and M had SO much fun. It's funny the things you do to give your kids new experiences. I've not camped out and really roughed it since I was a kid - and even then, we didn't really rough it. My folks had a number of motor homes while growing up. So roughing it just isn't something we did a whole lot of.

We had initially got a primitive shelter, but the cost of the shelter for two nights was the same as the cost for a new tent from Costco. So, we bought a tent. We didn't buy air mattresses, and I wish we had. The first night was awful - J & I didn't get any sleep at all. M slept hard. Good thing that Mineral Wells was close in town. We ran over to Walmart and bought two twin air mattresses so we could at least make it through the night.

As luck would have it, we caught wind of the possibility of rain. Well, I'm not going to break down a tent in mud, so after discussing it with J, we chickened out and broke down our campsite just before dinner. M was terribly disappointed, but she understood. Anyway, she had a big day. Started with hiking, then swimming, then fishing, and finally canoeing. She also made a candle (dig a hole, pour in wax and put in a wick). She was filthy when the day was done. Head to toe.

While eating dinner around the fire (yummy fajitas), someone had turned on a weather radio and we listened to the Mineral Wells weather. 100% rain - which was fine. Most folks were going to brave the rain. When it announced temperatures in the upper 40's with winds 10 t0 15 mph. . . well, that sealed the deal. The camping was essentially called off - we were the first ones out since we were already packed up.

Next trip is in October.