firsts

These past four months with Campbell in our lives have been filled with many firsts as you might imagine.  First smile, first time staying somewhere besides home, first trip to Maine, first long chunk of sleep for Mom and Dad.

This last weekend was the kind of first I like to write about.  First camp out in a tent with all of us, including Skagit.  This Summer I didn't get a chance to backpack in like I have the past few years with Astrid.  The smoke which is stuck in our valley much of the time has kept us from enjoying long periods of time in the outdoors (with the little ones) in these late Summer months.  So before much more time passed I thought we should camp out on the island at least once this Summer!  Everyone else agreed.

So late in the afternoon on Saturday Astrid and I paddled out and set up camp.

Astrid found some rocks near the dock that she wanted to take with us to the island.

Skaggy swam as you can see.

Self portrait.  We were trying to decide exactly where to sit the tent before we started.

Jeff and I thought it would be best if one of us set camp up early, come back and eat dinner at the cabin, then paddle back out and stay the night.  There were some times of doubt when I thought maybe Jeff and Astrid should go to the island without Campbell and me.  ...Maybe she hadn't had enough sleep during the day and maybe she would have a bad night in the tent...These doubts melted away as the time came closer for us to hop in the boats.  I didn't want to miss out...and that was the bottom line.

If I hadn't come I would have missed out on the story Jeff read Astrid by flashlight...(thank goodness for 1600 iso!)



and this wouldn't have happened, either!:

My pal, Campbell and I waited patiently for the other half of our family to wake up!

This was the smokey sunrise taken from the canoe as I paddled the back to the dock with the gals.  Jeff stayed to break down the tent whileI started the coffee and made breakfast on the mainland!

The night was long and I was awake for most of it in 5-15 minute increments worrying about Campbell and Astrid being warm enough, about Campbell crying and waking up the rest of the tent dwellers, about Skagit lying on top of Astrid and pushing her out of her sleeping bag....etc.  It was such a great adventure with the kids at the ages they are.  I'm so looking forward to many more trips like this next season.  Life is so full and so rich and so very sleepless these days.  Sleep is overrated anyway.


On the way home Sunday I called my Grammy Folsom and as I described it to her "it was sooo soooooo much fun... in a sleepless kind of a way."  That spurred her to tell me the story about the night she and Auntie Carlene stayed out on the island with some of the cousins and the mosquitoes were so thick they couldn't get them all out of the tent and it was almost unbearable and Christine (my cousin) sneezed all night from allergies, and.. and.. and.  She also told me about the time she was 13 or 14 and wanted so badly to go camping that her parents arranged for an 18 year old girl to take her for the week (she wasn't allowed to go camping with all her brothers).  It rained the entire week they were out and she says she remembers laughing above all else.  Everything was waterlogged and just awful and there is (Gram) Agnes laughing up a storm at the whole affair.  The 18 year old didn't know what do think about her...but they stayed in touch for years after the harrowing camping experience. In both instances she said that they had the time of their lives and I believe it.  Mostly because I'm the kind of person who thinks that if you don't have some sort of hurdle (large or small) or shared hardship it's a trip that won't cling to memory.

This one will cling to memory for quite some time.