Camping

Mosquito bites lurking in random places. Still groggy. Dirt in my nails, still, after showering. These are all signs that I went camping this past weekend. Mike and I took the boys for their first camping trip. How cute, you must think. How peaceful. How serene. Well, I hate to say it, but none of these things actually describe our experience! But, no matter how tired I was the next day, no matter how cranky I got, or how much mosquitoes enjoy my sweet blood, I want to go again and again. We drove up Friday afternoon to Homestake Creek, which is outside of Minturn going toward Leadville. We had discovered that spot a few years back, and thought it would be great for our first family camping trip. We got there around 5:30pm and there were hardly any places left to make camp. We found a spot that was not ideal, with a huge family camping behind the trees in front of us and a lone man with a tricked out jeep to the side of us. We decided it would be fine, since it was so late in the afternoon trying to find another place to camp would be hard. We set up camp and went for a walk. We took the boys off leash and they went romping through trees, over rocks, and in the creek. This was one highlight of the night. We got back to camp and started to make dinner. The lone man came over and started talking to us-he was meeting a bunch of friends to go 4X4-ing over the Holy Cross City jeep trail. We made dinner-soup, bread and cheese (it sounded good when we planned it...)-and then had a hot chocolate before going to bed (another highlight of the evening). Now, let me put this in context. We had Chester and Stanley attached to 20 feet of thin rope that was secured to the truck bed. They got all tangled, inside and out so the night consisted of constantly untangling them. Earlier in the evening we had them tied to a stake in the ground, but when the family camping across from us and their dog walked by, that stake was history. We also took too much stuff. I felt like I was constantly digging through our plastic bin for cups, food, spoons, etc. When we did sit down to eat, I felt like the only words coming out of my mouth were, "Sit, no, stay" because the dogs really wanted to eat our dinner. And the dinner...it sounded good when I packed it, but that night it was pretty anticlimactic. Canned soup, bread, and cheese...people in jail eat better than that. Our hot chocolate was weak, we split a packet between ourselves and it wasn't very good. So, I was actually looking forward to going to bed. That was when it all took a turn for the worse. The buddies of the guy next to us finally showed up, it was about 10pm. They had a huge bonfire that we could see through our tent walls. Someone slept with his engine on all night. We were right off the road, so car headlights kept shining through our tent. The boys were still a little damp from their romp in the water earlier, and Stanley was a dirty mess. The night got cold, and the boys were both freezing. Chester was shivering so badly that at one point Mike had Chester's head in the sleeping bag. I remember at one point waking up (I woke up almost every hour) and thinking it was almost time to get up. I looked at my watch and said, "It's only 3:30!" Mike responded, "better than it only being midnight." So true. Around that time, the boys kept wanting to leave tent, so at one point I was laying there clutching onto Stan's leash so he couldn't. 5am rolled around and we got up. We made coffee from these coffee singles that were years old and tasted that old. Although we did bring ingredients to make pancakes, we decided to pack it all up and head to Vail, where McDonald's was calling our names for a hot breakfast and good cup of coffee. I think we left the campsite at 6:30am. We were all exhausted after our long night, but spent the morning in Vail and Leadville. When we got home, we crashed for about 2 hours. Why would I want to subject myself to that again? In all the frustration, it was good to get away. I think the next time we will find a place that is more secluded. The next time I think we will pack it all in backpacks. We will get the boys their own sleeping bags. I don't want to give up. Did I mention we have a 5 day camping trip planned for July? That ought to be interesting!