Last Sunday, in a final farewell to Summer, Ben and I went camping with our good friends Janine and Eric and their kids Ben and Alison.  Oh and their dog Pickles.  Next to Lucy, he might be the greatest dog ever. 

So Janine and Eric, if Pickles ever goes missing in the night, I’m so sorry but ah, don’t go looking for him at my house.  He won’t be there.  Really. 

We went to Yellowstone Lake State Park and it was just beautiful. 

Since I am not a regular camper (I know, huge shock right?!) most of my camping gear was supplied by my father.  Ok, ok… ALL of it was.
My duffel bag?  Dad’s.
My sleeping bag?  Yep, Dad’s.
And my tent… ah the tent.  The circa 1920 tent.  Fine, it wasn’t from 1920 but it has to be at least 28 years old, as I remember sleeping in this thing when I was Ben’s age. 

This is Janine and Eric’s 21st century tent. 

Which took them all of 7 minutes to put it up.

Then there was my “classic” tent (as the other Ben aptly called it).

I have named him Wilson.

Wilson comes with lots of metal poles that you have to put together, he’s made of a very heavy canvas and it took me, Janine and Eric at least 30 minutes, a set of 28 year old directions and 2 gallons of sweat to put up.  But ain’t he grand?

Wilson is much like my Dad’s chairs.  He works just fine so why bother getting a new one?  And now, Wilson has been bestowed to me as my father’s camping days are pretty much over.  I’m a lucky girl. 

Even though this little camping trip was just two days and one night, we packed a lot in.

We went swimming at the beach:

The boys played football:

Don’t let the tough guy look fool you.  Ben is happy, he’s just being too cool for school… or camping in this case.

Somehow the Nintendo DS made it into the car, and therefore into the campsite.

Which turned out fine because it gave us adults a nice break every once in awhile.  Translation: time to sit and really enjoy those beers.  Or in Eric’s case, to do this:

And of course there was cooking over an open fire.  Which is my second favorite part of camping.  Especially when I have experienced campers with me who cook things like grilled salmon and chicken chipotle sausages!  

But my ultimate favorite thing about camping, is sitting around the camp fire at night under the blanket of stars.  We were so lucky as we had a totally clear night and it felt like we could see the whole universe.  Janine and the Bens swore they saw a star moving.  But Eric and I were having nothing of it.   

And then of course there were the ghost stories.  Some being so scary that my child wouldn’t leave my side for the rest of the night and I do believe there were even some quiet tears shed.  I would like to personally thank Janine for accomplishing that feat with her, “Johnny I’m on your first step… Johnny I’m on your second step… Johnny I’M RIGHT HERE!!!!” routine.   You can pay the therapist bills when later in life Ben doesn’t understand why he trembles every time a guy named John walks up the stairs behind him.

If you have ever wondered what two women look like after a night of sleeping on the ground with no coffee in the morning; well here you go:

Pretty huh?  Don’t ever say this blog isn’t 100% real.

Minus the sloping campsite and the rock hard ground, all in all a great time was had.  Next year we are going to the same camp ground but this time we are going to get a campsite that is next to the FLUSH toilets and not the pit ones.   Next to having a sore hip from lack of an air mattress, almost puking in the pit toilets isn’t my favorite way to wake up in the morning.

So to all you naysayers who thought this Princess couldn’t camp… take that! Not only do I camp, but I even got a thumbs up from Janine. 

Which, trust me, is a huge compliment!