Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Spontaneous Trips and Low Expectations



This was taken a couple of years ago during a trip to the Grand Canyon. Rv-ing is fun, I will admit, but when your husband decides we MUST get in a trip and school is in and clients are coming is it really that fun?

See, Mike had to travel the night of Father's and Sons (best church program EVER) and my little Parker actually cried over missing it. Daddy promised a trailer trip before the year was through.....thus, we are going up the canyon TODAY. (but MOM gets to go. Hooray for me!)
We already disagreed on location (I wanted hook-ups, pavement is more important to him) and time ( I wanted another week entirely). I lost both arguments. So, with NO MEALS planned (I told him to decide what he wants. He said TIN DIN's every night), and NOTHING in the trailer- we are heading out.
To ease your grief for me I will remind you, I will be HOME every morning to send my kids off to school and work a couple clients in. There is food, clothing, and lots of sugary cereal in my house, so we can grab what we need and get ready for the day.
At best, this could turn into a great family time with walks, talks, laughter and love (think LDS commercial meets Go RV-ing.com). Maybe I can sit by the campfire and enjoy my book. At worst, we will freeze at night, the kids will be bored (no TV) and fight, and whine over burnt hamburger meat in tin foil (think Griswold's and Chevy Chase).
Any guesses on how it will be?

12 comments:

Kristina P. said...

At least you get to go fun camping, not tent camping like us. In the words of TAMN, sad. :(

Unknown said...

PS-
Do you love Cat's in the Cradle??? I added it to really PUNCH the affect of Parker crying all night as the neighbors loaded up there van for Father's and Sons.

So effective, I almost want to cry!

Jillene said...

I hate camping. I mean tent camping. If I had an RV I would be all over it!

Hopefully it all goes well. Good luck!

Whitney R said...

I agree, the RV will make it a bit better. So... you are RVing all week? But still going home every morning to get the kids off to school, then picking them up and taking them out again? Did I missunderstand? How far away is it from your house?

Unknown said...

Yea, Whit- you got it. We are actually camping up the canyon about 15 minutes from here. I kind of wanted to pull the kids out of school- but that would be a lot of make-up work, so we decided to just drive down the hill (we live a block from school) the kids can shower and head out. Then Mike and I will go back to the trailer and have some 'us' time. We will meet the kids and bring them up for the night.

ANd yes- trailer camping is LOVELY compared to tents. Beds, sinks, even a toilet, and gas stoves (one outside) if we want to grill or whatever. Hey- at least we are doing something- but as I am packing this morning I am MURMURING. I am getting a better attitude......NOW.

Brittany Marie said...

Whatever you do, don't go camping at Payson Lakes. I hear there are mysterious orange bears up there.

*MARY* said...

I LOVE camping so much I'm thinking about stowing away in your trailer. Sadly the only camping I've ever experienced were my girls camp years. I've never been family camping, that's what I get for being born to a family with an Asian anti-camping dad and then marrying a man who's never even seen a tent, poor me.

Unknown said...

You know the yw camp leader wants me to pray that I will like camping....never going to happen.

mcranford said...

I am sure that you will have an awesome time. One night after a late softball game, our friends wanted us to go camping, and to my suprise - Joseph said yes. So we ran home grabbed some neccesities and hooked up the trailer - we pulled out at about 11:30 PM. We didn't get up to their spot until like 12:30. What were we thinking!!! It turned up pretty fun though.

Calvin said...

I want to hear how it ends up, I'm picturing that Mormon ad where the lights go out and they ake a game night out of it, or was that an add for games? Anyway, family time will be great. At least they can throw their shoes all they want and not break any windows.

Unknown said...

You know what? We had a great time (except for the morning trips down the hill for school). There were trails for the kids, a river to throw rocks in (no broken windows! yay) and the loops were fully paved, which meant the kids sped around on their scooters and skateboards as the fall leaves fell around us all. We ate smores and tin dins. One night we brought up KFC- I recommend this to you.
I had few hours to myself- Mike was picking up the kids, and I read by the river. Bliss.

Why do I resist these things? My husband is always right. A blast.

windsor said...

Babe, I'm not always right, but I appreciate the times when you can admit that I was right. Must have been one of those things you learned from Dr. Laura's book.

It was an awesome time. A bit chilly in the mornings but ABSOLUTELY beautiful in the daytime. Not a cloud in the sky the whole time we were up there (Wed.-Sat. morning).