Roughin' It

Two weeks prior to Memorial Day we had planned with some good friends and neighbors (who have four children that line up perfectly with our kids ages - except they have three girls and one boy) to go camping up the canyon. We drove up to pick a spot that wasn't covered with snow, and hoped it would warm up. The week preceding the long weekend it rained almost every day. We wanted the campout to work so badly, that neither one of us was willing to back down. (Even though both families admitted we probably should have, and sort of kind of wanted to, but didn't want to be the ONE to be the party pooper!) The kids were adventure enthusiasts, and so, amidst pouring rain, we set up our camp!

I didn't get a lot of pictures because it really was raining hard for a while. Things cleared up just before the night chill set in and we had some fun roasting all sorts of yummy food, puddle jumping, flashlight games, and just being together outside. It was also a nice treat after we got all the kids tucked in and somewhat asleep to just sit and chat around the fire with our friends.

In the end, we piled all twelve of us into our friend's pop-up camper. Their battery had died though, so we had no heat - except for our compiled body heat! But at least it wasn't our cold wet tent. We survived the freezing night and awoke to find that it had snowed! At this point we were running out of dry clothes for the kids, and positive attitudes for the adults. After voting the men out to start the fire, we had a hearty breakfast of cold cereal, roasted hotdogs, bagels, and marshmallows and started to pack up to go home.

That's when the paper people showed up: a reporter and photographer from The Chronicle. Apparently there was nothing newsworthy going on in our little town, and so they wanted to find out who was crazy enough to be camping in the snow. Our little crew of eight children under 9 made us entirely news worthy! The kids enjoyed being interviewed and were so excited to see the paper Sunday morning that tied our two families immortally together and made the best show and tell ever! We were a bit upset to see they didn't post a pic of ALL eight kids around that campfire (which I would have loved a copy of), but Mr. T was delighted to have his marshmallow highlighted, and Miss J was thrilled to be "quoted"! So now we are true Montanans! And have learned that you DON'T go camping on Memorial Weekend here!