Camping as a family is a great way to spend an extended amount of time together laughing, playing, bonding and singing Kumbaya. There is nothing like campfires, dirt and sleep deprivation to bring a family closer together. This year I (and my children) learned a few things while camping in Oregon and I would love to share these words of wisdom with you.
Campground showers are the best.
Now, I don’t know this from personal experience, I am simply concluding this from watching my children’s Campground Showering Enthusiasm. Never mind that I have to pay my children cold, hard cash at home to get them to take care of basic hygiene. Throw the in a campground with a shower (complete with dirt, sticks and likely several communicable diseases on the floor) and they will beg to shower.
Every day.
It’s never to early to have The Talk.
As I mentioned yesterday, we are all about the facts over here. No cutesy little Pokemon names for body parts. Nope. We believe in telling the truth, the whole (age-appropriate) truth and nothing but the truth. That’s why I should not have been surprised when a certain little soon-to-be first grader asked me how babies were made. “No, mom, I mean, how are they actually made?” I gave him facts, simply and succinctly (this is not the first time he’s heard it). He is clearly growing in understanding wisdom, because this time he started giggling. Then he dropped the bombshell:
“But mom…”
*giggle giggle*
“What if you…woke up…WHILE it was happening?”
*more giggles*
I really wanted to say, “I wouldn’t know son, I’ve been chronically sleep-deprived for six years”.
But didn’t. See, I really am a good mom!
Celine Dion and Mario are in fact two completely different people.
On our endless delightful drive to Oregon Apollo and Enoch were having a discussion about music and their favorite songs. One came on and someone mentioned the artist’s name. Apollo exclaimed,
“I always thought that was Mario (from Super Mario Brothers) singing!”
to which Enoch completely deadpanned:
“Turns out, it was actually Celine Dion”
So there you go. Two different people.
Mind. Blown.
Camping in another state is the perfect time to go school clothes shopping.
Who knew? We didn’t until the first morning of our camping trip when it was time to get Apollo dressed and it was discovered that not a single shirt had been packed for him. I am not sure where the breakdown happened. I put all of Apollo’s clothes and GoodNites in a laundry basket before I left for BlogHer. I gave instructions to a child to pack those for Apollo (I would still be gone on camping prep day). Somehow he ended up without a single shirt besides the one he arrived in.
Which leads to our next learning experience.
You can cut back on clothing clutter by losing shirts you have purchased the very day you buy them.
Here’s a tip I never knew! Cut back on clothing clutter by buying a brand new shirt, pulling it out of the bag and giving to another child with the instructions, “Put this on Apollo when you go in the bathroom”. By losing the shirt on the first day (before its even been worn) you are guaranteed it will never clutter up your house or contribute to the mountain of laundry.
With any luck the shirt will disappear and spend the rest of its days vacationing on the Oregon Coast.
Camping really is a great way of family bonding and more importantly an opportunity to take amazing photos!
Case in point:
Did you learn anything on your summer vacation this year? Have any humorous stories about The Talk? Be sure and leave a comment.
You all learned some very “interesting” things! And you went to my favorite beach! Love Cannon Beach!
Well, at least if you had to buy clothes in Oregon… no tax! We have planned some of our annual shopping around trips to Oregon for that very reason!
And OH MY WORD I love Apollo 😀 I can still remember my mom explaining sex and concluding that, well, there were three kids, so they’d done THAT three times, right? (Because why would anyone do that for any other reason?!)
Love your photos, as always,
Julie
I’ve heard of SO many children thinking that about the number of times their parents must have “done THAT,” including with two of mine. 🙂
While taking my boys on a walk in the woods, we were talking about using the potty in nature, a skill any explorer- little boy needs to know about. I commented that they were lucky in that boys can walk over to a tree and pee standing up. My 8 year old asked why I couldn’t, then proceeded to say that I should try it, that perhaps I could do it. “You won’t know till you try, Mom. You should try it before you say you can’t do something.” I paused, smiled, took a breath …and pointed out the interesting plant next to them. 😉