camping

August 06, 2022

camping

Camping with three babies is not for the faint of heart, but it may be an adventure for the crazy. It's like I told Allen,

"It's as if we thought a weekend of taking care of 3 babies looked a bit too boring so we decided to live outside for two nights to make it a bit more exciting." (We have baby twins in our home through foster care at the moment)

It all started like a typical camping trip, running all over the house gathering all the things on our "Master Camping List" and wondering why we got this into our heads in the first place. In the meantime, my mom was faithfully washing dishes, feeding babies, and rescuing my plants from the recently mobile Jasper. We were not even 5 miles down the road when I remembered the first forgotten items: pillows and jugs of water for bottles. With lack of motivation to turn our caboose of a camper around we reasoned that we could do without pillows and boil water over the fire for the babies' bottles.

Typically our camping adventures include a quiet state park surrounded by trees and maybe a tent or two. This time, however, we waited too long and the state parks were full. I asked Allen (trying to sound casual) where he ended up booking our campsite. He told me about a little campground privately owned close to one of our favorite areas of southern Minnesota. I hoped it would offer the same cozy privacy that I was used to.

The babies all took lovely naps on our drive over and were still sleeping when we pulled into what I had been dreading. A pond of campers (both tiny homes and people kind of campers) seemed to glare up at us as we rounded the bend towards the campground. I moaned audibly and poor Allen tried to defend this place that we hadn't even tried yet. As we mosied to our campsite and unbuckled sleepy babies from their car seats, I felt the insecurities of a twelve year old wash over me.

Those other people must think we are loony dragging all these babies out here with a rusty old camper... I thought. The shiny new campers parked on either side of us seemed to peer down their noses at us.

As I fed babies, Allen explored to see if any other sites were more private. He came back saying there weren't any that we could access with our "tent on wheels". So we seemed to be stuck.

After the babies were fed, I slowly wondered out to the campfire Allen had already started. The firepit was tucked in by trees on three sides for which I was grateful. Now I somewhat understood how my country loving sister-in-law must have felt when she came to help with the twins for a week. Surrounded by houses and people our home is most definitely not in the country. Maybe this is why, when I go camping I want to get away from people not closer to them.

The next priority was supper, but that was much easier said than done. The twins kept on fussing, first one then the other. Jasper decided to taste rocks. We started to pull food out of the cooler. At some point amidst bottle feedings, cleaning bark out of curious fingers, and chopping veggies, our supplies were set out and ready to be made into mountain pies. Why is food always so much better over the fire? It was delicious.

By the time we transfered pack n plays to the camper and laid sleeping babies into them it was 10:45. We were shocked at how fast the evening had gone by.

We slept well and with the freshness of a new day, this camping adventure seemed a bit more doable. Even the multitude of campers surrounding us didn't ruin the fun!

What a strange tradition, camping is... What is it that causes people to want to leave the luxury of indoor plumbing, air conditioning, and washing machines to swat mosquitoes, squint your eyes from the smoke of the campfire and sleep on hard beds?

Here's what I came up with: It takes us back to the basics, family, food, and fellowship. Just people on God's green earth enjoying what he has created.