Xander and I went camping last night with my sister Rena and her girls Cassie and Lexi at the campground near where we've been staying. It was Xander's first night in a tent. When Amy and I had been talking earlier this summer about camping out during the Tour de Kota, Xander had said that he wanted to go camping too. Of course, we weren't going to take him on the bike tour with us, so we had been talking about camping with him at some point this summer for the better part of two months. The perfect opportunity presented itself when Rena and the girls said they were going to come over.
Unfortunately, it is August in South Dakota and the temps were well in the 90's yesterday with a heat index of over 100. The only possible places to escape the heat were at the beach or at the house, so our family met Rena's down at the beach where we cooled off for a couple of hours. Lexi wanted to leave almost immediately, but soon hit her stride. Xander is an old pro at the beach by now and had a great time. Cassie found a clam, named it "Freddie" and was determined to take it home with her. Amy took Maia back up to the house after awhile and we joined her later and did dinner in the a/c with Jim and Marilyn.
At about 8:00 Rena, Lexi, Cassie, Xander and I headed back down to the campsite. I set up the tent for "the boys" while Rena got a fire going. She kept commenting on how it didn't make sense to light a fire when it was still so hot, but that's what you do when you go camping isn't it? I was glad for the fire, because the bugs weren't nearly so bad around it. We had been chewed up almost as soon as we got there and setting up the tent was an exercise in concentration with gnats buzzing right in front of my eyes.
We hung out around the fire for a bit and had smores while Lexi and Xander kept finding new games to play and ways to keep themselves entertained. Those two can play for hours in any setting with anything they find. It's been great that they've had so much time together this summer.
I think we were all a bit tired from the beach and the heat and turned in shortly after 9:30. Xander and I got into the tent and I showed him his spot, blankets and pillow and we said goodnight. It was still pretty hot and the breeze we had enjoyed earlier in the day had deserted us, so sleep was elusive for awhile. Every once in awhile I would open my eyes to check on Xander. The kid was all over the place trying to find a comfortable spot. He's used to having a good sized bed all to himself, so he is usually able to move around to find a comfortable spot until he falls asleep. At one point he was completely off of the sleeping bags that we were using as a pad and was all the way over at the side of the tent. A little later, his head was right next to my thigh and he was sleeping perpendicular to me in the tent. We were sharing one queen sized bed sheet which was made difficult by this sleeping configuration and when I pulled the blanket back onto me, he stirred enough to go back to his original sleeping position with his head on his pillow.
The breeze finally kicked in again sometime in the middle of the night which brought a little bit of relief. We each had a throw blanket that we could use if it cooled down which I finally went for at about 6:30. Xander was curled up in the middle of the tent, so I covered his legs with his blanket and we managed to sleep more or less until about 8:00.
We got up and sprayed the bug spray again before heading down to the bathroom. By the time we came back, the girls were up and the bugs were buzzing again. We had breakfast and Xander and Lexi ran around a tree for awhile before Xander and I headed back up the hill to the house.
Rena called a little later and said that she and the girls were going to head for home. The bugs, the heat and the prospect of another long night convinced them that they'd had enough "fun" for this trip.
Xander seemed to enjoy himself. I was hoping that he'd have a good time after thinking about going for a couple of months, but there was a part of me that was hoping he wouldn't enjoy it too much for fear that he might make me go again and again. I'm not much on camping, but I'm huge on my son enjoying life and being there to enjoy it with him, so if he wants to go again, heat, bugs and all, I'll be there with him.
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