Lessons From the Wild

August was a fun month this year... Josh and I celebrated our 5th anniversary - yay us! We also took our 2nd camping trip as a familia!

It was our third camping trip since 2005, and we had some improving to do. The first trip we took together was in celebration of our first anniversary. In August. In Texas. We tried to make the best of it by swimming and canoeing in a lake, cooking hot dogs and photographing critters, but the sweat in our eyes kept distracting us and we had depleted our water supply within hours of setting up camp. On to round two: Noa was about a year old and the temp was freezing at night. We bundled and we snuggled... and we got absolutely no sleep.

I was hoping that it could only get better from there, and I'm pretty sure it did. The three of us were relatively cozy on our little air mattress in our little tent. Noa was by far the coziest, though. She slept wonderfully, much to my surprise. Our food did not spoil, even though our cooler leaked ice water the entire time. Bears stayed away and we had good friends all around us. I can't wait to do it again. Even though I have no complaints, I will still learn a few things and hopefully continue to improve as we go...


Lessons I learned (ahem, "am learning"...)

1. Chill out. For one of our meals I had prepared gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches ahead of time, and brought along some deli tomato soup to heat on the camp stove. Josh dove right into the sandwiches and I began to stress because they needed to be warmed up and served with hot soup for dipping (of course). Josh looked me in the eyes and spoke a thousand words in silence. We were hungry. We were camping. The food was fine. So I let him eat his sandwich while the soup quickly heated, and we enjoyed. Presentation is not everything, and my "just right" can sometimes ruin someone else's "just fine".

2. Share the love. On occasion I would find myself trying to accomplish several tasks in an effort to maintain order and efficiency, all the while sacrificing chill time with the group. Josh would find me in my manic tizzy and grab a pot and scrubber, or a child and potty, and share the load. Which left me wondering why I sometimes pile so much on to my plate and once and then pretend it all has to be done at once, by myself, in frustrated solidarity?

3. Be nice. As many of you know, Josh is a social butterfly. A manly one. A manly social butterfly... On his adventures across the globe and through the crowds, he often comes across nice people. People who share things and help out and quickly offer a word of encouragement or a handshake. Thankfully, Josh often brings those gifts back home to his girls. On several occasions during our outing in the wild, he wandered to someone else's campsite and returned with a warm cup of coffee or treat, or funny story worth a good smile. I benefited greatly from these niceties, I might say. Watching someone else be nice to my Hub, then watching him be nice to me or our Minnie Me, leaves me with an irresistible urge to be nice myself. Funny how that works.

4. Snuggle. Sometimes nightfall brings a chill, and darkness brings unfamiliar noises. In those moments, when you don't have an answer, snuggling is the best thing to do. Find the ones who love you, love them back, and stick close.

Now, are we still talking about camping? :)