Top 10 Reasons to Hold the Applause

We have been getting far more kudos (on and off the blog) than we deserve for last weekend's trip. Though I very much appreciate your kind words, I feel compelled to break down the realities of why it was not as heroic as it may have appeared.

10. We car-camped. Not only that, but we brought TWO SUV's stuffed full of all our creature comforts: in this family, that means two exersaucers, a swing, a tricycle... you get the picture.

9. The campsite was 20 minutes away, doorstep to doorstep. If it all went to you-know-where in a hand-basket, we weren't far from home sweet home.

8. Not only did we car-camp, but our site had both electricity and running water.

7. Which means naptimes were augmented with a fan and sound machine.

6. Jake asked if we could bring the coffee maker since we had electricity. I said, no, that's cheating, bring the camp coffee percolator I gave you for Christmas. Bad call. The percolator didn't percolate and the poor man went without coffee all weekend. I enjoyed my French press (I did mention creature comforts, right?) but by the time we realized Jake's coffee was not happening, we didn't have time to put his caffeinated business in my press. And drinking my decaf would have been pointless, right?! :)

5. Blythe never fell asleep that first afternoon nap. She didn't fuss much, but was too distracted by everything else in the tent, a.k.a. 2 year old sister 8 inches away playing, to close those big bright eyes. So don't go thinking that every naptime went off without a hitch.

4. I had done the prepwork for our meals in advance, so when eating time rolled around, we weren't cooking and tending to children- we just threw everything on the grill.

3. We do now own the mack-daddy (yes, I did just say that- circa 1997 or so?) tent that Jake got for his birthday. It made our lives easier having all that space.

2. When your babies are this age, you're going to basically be doing the a lot of the same things anywhere you go, so it didn't take much more packing of gear to go camping than what we bring when we descend on our parents' homes or anywhere else. OK, maybe a little, but not much!

1. Camping with babies is always a gamble. While this trip was entirely successful, next time we might just be those neighbors everyone's giving dirty looks to the next morning!