Ready for More Camping Stories?

As you read this, I am headed home. I am writing this and scheduling its arrival to your computer on the day I am headed home, driving my champagne colored suburban with white knuckles over roads with no names as I haul our long camper home from a long week of camping that will have seemed too short.

And I hope we have had no camper issues, no suburban issues, no animal attack issues, no shower issues....I hope we have just had a wonderful time.

Because when I get home, we have very little time before school starts and I just despise that S word.

And, also, to be honest, I hope we have a wonderful time camping because preparing for camping is NOT fun. Not at all.

The idea of camping is grand. That is what spurs you on to load half your house in a camper smaller than your living room, to figure out how you can pack enough underware and still have some when you return home, to make sure you have every loved stuffed animal, enough mini marshmallows for the marshmallow gun fights, enough books in case you dislike one you brought with you or in case you love it so much you read it all in one day, enough food...good gracious, let there be enough food to keep the boys fed!...enough water to survive 90 degree temps, enough "fun" stuff in case it rains.

Enough of everything, pretty much.

But when we go to leave, the boys will no doubt cry and say they did not have enough time.

And I will sniff with them because leaving for camping makes me grouchy and short with them, and then for seven glorious days we have fun and tease and tell stories and eat junk and play and swim and enjoy each others company.

And then we come home.

And the camper has to be unpacked, and the laundry has to be done, and the dinner needs to be made and, well, REAL life crashes in.

But I wish there was a way to make the feeling of camping last long after we return.

Either way, you are still probably guaranteed some great stories. I mean, it is US we are talking about here. Me, the four boys, Hubs for the weekend, one dog, my mom, her dog, my brother, sister in law, Jr, E-girl and a bunch of visitors.

And racoons. The racoons have been counting down for our arrival.

I'll fill you all in just as soon as I get the laundry going, the food cooking and the coffee brewed.