We got home from our camping trip 1:30 on Friday afternoon and immediately got busy unpacking and cooking for Shabbos!  We once again had a wonderful time.  And maybe what was so remarkable about that is all the reasons that it could have turned out badly:

– Initial delay of a day after finishing packing to go because of car trouble and the unexpected $820 repair bill.

– Got to campsite and found out that the campsites ranger told us were right on the river, weren’t.  After choosing our first campsite discovered that there was a steep drop right behind it and had to repack up and find another site.

– Unpacked van and discovered that we didn’t have the necessary poles to assemble the tent we borrowed (we have one of our own that we use for me, dh, and baby, and borrowed a second large one with two rooms that are split between boys and girls).  Ds3 and ds2 (birthday was yesterday!) came into our tent, other kids decided to sleep out under the stars and woke up badly bitten by various bugs.

– Were told by ranger in advance that there’s a problem with bees if food is left out; weren’t concerned since we don’t leave food around when camping.  Found out very quickly that bringing out even a small bite of food attracted large numbers of yellow jackets (ds got stung when eating a plain piece of bread within 15 minutes of arriving).  They come out at the first sign of daylight and were still flying around when it started getting dark.  Several kids were stung, including ds2, and ds3 got stung twice.

– Had lots of beautiful deer in this state park, and lots of not so nice deer ticks.  We discovered this when dd8 took off her socks on the second day and asked a couple of siblings what was on her legs -lots of tiny ticks.  Other kids got them, too.

– Ds16 and dh couldn’t sleep the first night because of congestion and wheeziness.

– I had my first asthma attack ever, totally unexpected and for which I was totally unprepared, on the second night which was beyond scary and for a very long couple of minutes couldn’t breathe no matter how hard I tried.  I begged H-shem to help me – and He did.  When I could breathe again somewhat, spent the next few hours sleeping upright on a chair inside the shower stall area of the restroom.  Then moved to the drivers seat of the van for another couple of unrestful hours.  And on the last night I sat in the van again, with the whine of mosquitoes in my ears, waiting for morning to come and periodically dozing off for short periods.

– We had to drive to an area for ds16 and ds10 to fish, and they discovered there was nothing to catch but seaweed.

-The swimming area was also not in walking distance; had to drive seven minutes to get there (remember, dh told a ranger what we were looking for and were clearly told we could camp on the river and have fishing and swimming right there).  We got there and discovered that was mainly filled with seaweed, and the sand on the beach was packed down hard like a rock, not comfortable to rest on at all.

But fortunately we get to choose how we think about things, and I told the kids on day 2 that we were going to use this as an opportunity to focus on what we liked and practice accepting reality as it is, not being annoyed about things that weren’t as we expected them to be.  We actively reframed everything.  So here’s the flip side of the above:

– Mechanic got our van fixed in time for us to still have a camping trip, and charged a lot less than we were quoted at a different shop.

– Because our first site wasn’t good for us because of the drop, drove around different loops of the state park and found one that was right across from the water pump and bathrooms.  Since this was furthest from access to the water, no one was choosing this section and we were the only ones in the entire loop, except for the campground host (who didn’t show up).  We had lots of privacy, so we didn’t have to worry about our noise bothering other people.

– The older kids got the experience of sleeping under the stars for the first night, and we had a second tent so we weren’t totally stuck.  Went shopping for a tent the next afternoon and in spite of when you need to buy something it generally being the least economical way to shop, got a good buy.  The next two nights the kids enjoyed the tent and for our next trip we won’t have to borrow one!

– When we got there, the kids were very leery of the yellow jackets.  They got so used to them that they’re quite casual and almost impervious to them, now – they enjoy flicking them away.  That will come in handy for Sukkos!

– Now the kids know what deer ticks look like; had them read the flyer posted where the announcements were about dangers of deer ticks, what to do, etc, – got an early start on the school year since that counts as science! 🙂  Learned that deer like miso, since one came into our campsite while I was resting and ate a chunk out of a container that hadn’t been closed well, apparently!

– There was hot water in the showers there, and ds16 was able to take a shower for 1 1/2 hours in the middle of the night until he felt better.  Dh joined him (though he was only in the shower for half an hour), and they had some late night bonding, chatting together from their individual shower stalls.

– I started breathing again.  There was a sheltered building for me to stay in at night.  There was a perfect amount of space between the bench and the curtain that closed off the shower area for my chair to fit.  We had one chair shaped a bit differently than the rest that allowed me to partially lean my head back, and my snood when pulled down over my nose did a great job blocking out the fluorescent lights.  No one else was there so I didn’t have to worry about anyone coming in, and it was a very short walk to the bathroom in the middle of the night.  🙂  Got to take a nap both mornings and one afternoon, so that refreshed me.

– Got a fun picture of ds16 with the seaweed he caught.  🙂  And ds said it was relaxing for him to go fishing even if he didn’t catch anything.

– The beach area had a really nice park near by.  We met a nice family there, an older couple with several of their adult kids and grandchildren.  I chatted with one of the married kids, dh with the grandmother – when he told me afterwards they were homeschoolers, he was surprised when I told him I was pretty positive about that before he mentioned anything.  Strong extended families, friendly and open, and their kids played nicely with mine at the play area – all key markers for homeschoolers.

This park ended up being a highlight for the kids, as they turned one of the play structures into an obstacle course, and took turns running over it as fast as they could while being timed.  Trying again and again to beat their times had them all excited and enthusiastic.  We wouldn’t have discovered this park if we hadn’t gone to the beach.

Though we generally enjoy parking ourselves in one place for three days, we enjoyed singing together with a cassette during our short drives from place to place.   The weather was perfect the entire time, the food was great, and the nightly singing and talking around the campfire was so, so nice.

We had a family hike together to a historic lighthouse and the kids helped out with holding ds3 in their arms or on their backs, ds2 in the hiking backpack and the baby in the mei tai, enjoyed seeing some wildlife up close (deer, groundhogs, foxes, frogs and toads, interesting insects), and just generally enjoyed one another’s company.  For the first time we had to get two campsites because of our family size; this gave us a lot more room and felt very expansive, and the kids really enjoyed the independence of sleeping in their own site (the two sites were adjacent).

We may decide to go back to our old spot for next year’s trip, but we had a great time this year!

Avivah