The Really, Really, Real Adventures of Mommyhood: Good Morning Campers!!!

When I was a kid, my sister, Michelle, and I would spend the summers with our dad in Louisiana and while he was at work during the day, our Aunt Jacki would take care of us and our cousins. One of our annual summer activities was to go to Ft. Pickens, FL and go camping. We would load up her 2 door Ford Festiva (Google a picture of this so you can see how small the car is!) with camping gear, food for about a week, 5 kids and 1 adult, and we would make the 4-5 hour trek to the beach.

Once there, we would set up our little campsite and spend the week touring the old forts, playing in the sand, riding bikes around the campsite, and playing cards or chess at night before we went to bed. It didn't matter how many times we'd been on the fort tours before, we still went. In fact, between the 5 of us, we could probably give those tours ourselves! We were never bored and spent sun up to sun down soaking up every ray of sunshine (yeah, we didn't know much about sun protection back then...). We made friends with other campers and truly explored and experienced everything Ft. Pickens had to offer us. For nearly a solid week, we didn't watch tv, play video games, or talk on the phone to our friends. We just had each other. And it was perfect. Even then, as small children, we had a sense that sometimes you just need to step away from it all and really live in the amazing world God built for us.

I remember sitting up at night with my cousins playing spades. I remember splashing in the Gulf and learning all about sea turtles and sand dunes. I remember watching the racoons pick their way through our campsite at night, looking for any food that had been left out. We cooked our meals together, played together, and slept in one big, family sized tent. These trips are my favorite memory as a child. I'll bet if you asked my sister and cousins, they'd tell you the same.

A few months ago, Michelle mentioned going camping with her husband's family. I got so excited! Camping!!!! All of my memories as a kid came flooding back and I think my sister could tell how fun this sounded to me and invited Mike, Oli, and me to come along. It had been years since I had been camping. Mike and I went for a night a few years ago on a river float trip but that was it. This would be our first "family vacation."

I have to admit that as the time drew near and we began making preparations for the trip, I started to get a little nervous. Camping??? What was I thinking??? It's June for crying out loud. In Texas. And we have a 9 month old! I have no idea how to prepare for a camping trip. I didn't know what groceries to buy or what to bring. How did Aunt Jacki do it???

Michelle and I split the grocery list and talked about a few things that we knew we'd need. And of course, we used this as an excuse to pack things we don't normally eat. Like bologna, and Oreos, and huge chocolate muffins (were we headed to Fat Camp perhaps??) Luckily, we would be sleeping in shelters so we wouldn't need a tent, just air mattresses and bedding. Mike and I got the pack n' play ready, threw some t-shirts, shorts, and bathing suits in a bag, grabbed enough diapers for a daycare center, and we were ready to go.

As we loaded up my bro-in-law's big SUV, I started to get really excited. I imagined the campfire, swimming in the lake, and those awesome mornings where you wake up to natural sunlight and get to enjoy the cool morning air. The car was packed to the roof and we were off! As we drove away, helping Michael navigate traffic since he couldn't see out of the back window, we wondered, "How did Aunt Jacki do it??" Seriously, did you Google a picture of the Ford Festiva?? Here we were in this huge SUV and we barely made everything fit. Yet, somehow, she managed to get 5 kids, herself, all of our luggage, camping gear, and food for a week inside. I am convinced, yet again, that the good ole Ford Festiva was some kind of magical clown car.

We arrived at the campsite late on Friday, set up our new home for the next 3 days, and cracked open the beer. That night we could see every star in the sky and hear the cicadas chirping all around us. I haven't heard that sound in a long time and it sounded like music to me. The next morning, we were woken by the sun, that beautiful morning sunrise that I so often miss because I'm busy getting ready for work or trying to catch up on sleep on the weekends.

For 3 days we floated in the lake, played cards (and some drinking games--a perk to no longer being 10 years old), ate yummy camp food (hot dogs, burgers, bologna sandwiches, Oreos, etc.), fished, and just hung out together. We had the most random and wonderful conversations which is exactly what happens when you are without cable tv or computers. Mike, Oli, and I got to know Michael's family better and they treated us like family. I was nervous about Oli going camping for the first time. I just wasn't sure how she'd handle the heat but she camped like a pro! My dad would be so proud!

Major, major thanks goes out to Michael's aunt Becky & uncle Kevin for all they did to make this camping trip awesome! Between them and their long-time neighbors, Gary & Laura, we were prepared for everything. They had breakfast and dinners planned. They had camping stoves, dishes, coolers full of drinks, and floats for the lake. They thought of everything! They treated us like we were one of their own and it was so nice to be included with their wonderful families.

Of course, like any Milligan outing these days, we did have a few minor calamities. The first night, our air mattress sprung a leak so Mike and I slept on the concrete. After a night of being the Flintstones, Mike headed to the local Walmart to get a new one. We were ready to rough it, but not that much! The second day, something weird happened with the window shades and the sink in our shelter and somehow the faucet ended up being turned on by the window shade and the sink wasn't draining and our shelter got flooded. Luckily nothing got ruined and it was early enough in the day that everything had time to dry out before that night. There were a few scorpion sighting (how did I forget how many bugs there are when you are camping???), sunburns galore (except for Team Milligan because we are so white that I think the sun actually just bounces off of us at this point), and did I mention it was June?? For those of you not from around these parts, that means it was HOT. HOT. HOT.

And though we were camping, of course everyone still had their i-phone handy to check sports scores and Facebook. Since Sunday night was game 6 of the NBA Championship and our beloved Mavs were just 1 game away from winning it, the guys were determined to watch that game. They managed to get a 13 inch tv to our campsite so we could watch the game! There we sat in our camping chairs, the lake in front of us, the woods behind, and the NBA Championship final game playing. It was pretty funny to see a bunch of "campers" crowded around a television.

During the hottest parts of the day, suddenly everyone needed to go get things from the "store." Now I have no idea what they were selling at the stores around that lake, but everyone in our group needed to go. I'm pretty sure this was their way of beating the heat. Cheaters! ;) My dreams of a campfire were not realized since there was a burn ban because of the lack of rain but I didn't mind so much since it was so hot. Did I mention it was hot??

The night before we left, Michelle and I laid next to each other on our adjoining air mattresses, Mike, Michael, and Oli snoozing beside us, and talked for a long time. My sister and I didn't always get along when we were kids. In fact, we fought A LOT. But I remember all of the evenings we laid beside each other on my dad's pull out couch, in our tent in Ft. Pickens, or on pallets on the floor at my grandparents. No matter what we had fought about that day, we were there with each other and for each other at the end of it. Our conversations that night were less about boys and clothes and more about mother- and womanhood, but it still felt like being a kid again. As adults, we don't have slumber parties that often, and we don't share a sleeping space. But for 3 nights this weekend, we did and it was awesome.

As we packed up the next day, I felt a little sad that our trip had come to an end. I was thrilled to be getting back to the air conditioner but bummed that this care-free weekend was over.

On our way back home, Mike and I talked about how much fun we had and how we would do it again next year if we are invited back (hint, hint!). We talked about how nice it was to get away from everything for a while and just have some fun just hanging out.

This is how I want Olivia to grow up. I want her to know what it's like to go camping, to fish in the lake, to hang out at night with her cousins playing cards or dominoes, to lay next to her sister at night, looking at every star in the sky, talking about boys and clothes.

I feel like we have a tendency to get away from the simpler things in life that bring us so much joy. Mine and Mike's vacations have been pretty elaborate in the past. I'm not saying camping is an easy vacation. It's not. But it's definitely simpler. There are no jacuzzi tubs, wait staff bringing pina coladas pool side, or comfy king sized beds. But there are stars, the sounds of cicadas at night, watching deer as you eat your grilled hot dog, the soft "plonk" sound a lure makes as it hits the water, and just being with each other without a whole bunch of distractions.

When you are camping, you have to really pull together and interact. You have to team up to cook the meals, wash the dishes, set up the campsite, and entertain each other. It's a way to just come together as a family and really enjoy each other. Our lives are so busy and often we are all traveling in different directions. When you are at a campsite though, the busy-ness just sort of stops and you get to breathe a little for a little while.

We are definitely saving for a vacation at a beach resort, but I hope, as we continue Team Milligan family vacations, we get to equally enjoy all of the luxuries of a resort as well as the beauty of a campsite.