Camping!

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If you haven’t been away most of the summer or ignoring the multitude of cookie recipes I’ve been making, you surely are “in-the-know” that I have been camping almost every single weekend this summer. This is the first summer that we have a trailer and we are out at Gull Lake, soaking up the rain  sun? every weekend and fishing until our arms are tired.

I’ve forgotten how much work camping is, especially for The Mom. The Mom usually is the one in charge of packing, food, cleaning, meal planning and this Mom is no exception. Luckily, I take  great pleasure in concocting all sorts of camping recipes, my creative cooking juices have been flowing.

Besides the fun I am having concocting new recipes, I’ve always known the family time value in getting out camping as we camped all the time when we were children, but enjoying the activity with my own kids has multiplied the worth for us.

We get to visit with relatives more, my sister and nephew are out almost every weekend with us and Rose and Mr K get to see their cousin a lot more than we usually would.  Their Uncle Wyatt comes out and spends the weekend with us on occasion as well.

Wyatt comes out, chops wood and gets back to his manly man roots.

The kids, as you can plainly see, are really not happy about camping. It’s a shame really, that I put in all the work and effort to pack us up and get us out there only to have them act like this.

Then there’s the boy. Is it me, or is there a certain age when their faces just start contorting into weird shapes when a camera is pointed their way?

It’s like he can’t help it. “OMGerd, there’s a camera pointed at me! Quick, make the goofiest face possible while acting cool.”

Are boys genetically pre-disposed to this syndrome?

It’s also been a great time to practice our photography and I must admit, shooting food outside is a challenge within itself! Natural light is not all the same and I’m finding that non-diffused natural light is challenging me to learn my camera in ways I haven’t before. My sister has taken on my old camera and between the two of us, the sounds of cameras clicking permeate the campsite most days.

See? He wasn’t looking at the camera, so I actually got a picture without a goofy face. I am baffled, I mean, the kid knows that these pictures of him are on my website for thousands to see but he still doesn’t care and makes those goofy faces for the world to see.

Men. I have a little one now and I still don’t understand them.

My Rose has no problem posing for practice pictures however her beauteous face belies the fact that underneath she’s probably thinking of punching her brother and how she’s going to drive him nuts next.

Hmm. Not sure what’s worse, the overt behaviour or the smile that will kill you.

The storms have been fierce, scary and I’ve discovered that lightning/thunder booms shake a trailer like nobodies business. Oy. There’s this feeling like you are stuck in a tin can with a storm raging above you and there’s much to do but hang in there.

This storm brought hail with it, a lightening strike that hit within a kilometre of the campground – shaking the trailer and deafening us momentarily – and a deluge of rain.

Then there are these.

Glorious sunsets like I’ve never seen before, since we are at the perfect part of the lake to see the sun setting over our beautiful Rocky Mountains, nothing but lake and sky

As I start packing up for the long weekend here in Canada, washing the kids clothes, planning out games in case it rains, I’m grateful that this year we had the chance to get out and experience camping. (In a trailer. No tent girl here, not with children.) As cranky as I get with the weather this summer, at least we have had a few glorious days of sun, we’ve had the boat out on the lake a few times and the kids have fun, whether or not it’s rain or sun.

I need to remember that sentence when it’s pouring rain and we are stuck in the trailer.

The kids have fun rain or shine.

So rain or shine, what are your plans for this long weekend? I am a little sad that I am missing the Edmonton Heritage Festival for the first time in years. If you have a chance, go. I feel that the Heritage Festival sums up what this city is all about.

Thanks for stopping by!

Love,

Karlynn