We went camping for the weekend. Friends keep asking us if we had fun and the honest answer is the boys had fun. Us I'm not so sure. It's quite stressful trying to load everything for the 4 of us for the weekend into a tiny car, putting up a tent neither of us knows how to put up, and all the rest of the joys that camping brings. Thankfully the torrential downpour started shortly after the tent was up and we had made dinner on the campfire as I'm not sure the boys would have coped if we couldn't toast marshmallows. Trapped inside the tent as a stream of water made it's way across the floor the boys read Transformers comics to each other with the head torch, their excitement not dwindling. Luckily the rain calmed down and we could head out for a walk in the dark, attempting to spot an owl or some bats. We saw neither.
Day two and things were already much better. The sun was shining, we'd all survived the night with varying degrees of sleep, the tent didn't leak and more than that it was Connors birthday. Hurray! Opening birthday cards and pressies in the tent he was as happy as Larry and it made all the stress of the previous day worth while. The boys did some secret ninja training, a little bit of football, more marshamallows, and that evening we did manage another night walk through the woods. This time we took the bat detector with us and heard the distinctive sound of bats. As Connor put it, we were not alone!
Breaking it down into simple terms the boys just want to sleep outside in a tent, light a fire, toast marshmallows, run around outside and go for a night time walk with torches. Simple right?! I'm sure I can manage that once a year. Tom I'm not so sure.
