Truman's First Campout

Naught's Landing, our beautiful party porch, has many wonderful features such as a mini-fridge full of beer and nightcrawlers, a cd player, fish mounts on the walls (including one that sings), and seating for eleven. But it also has a beautiful little camping spot adjacent to it, tucked nicely into a stand of cedar, hickory, and oak trees. That is where we spent our first night of camping together as a family of four.

Truman loved playing in the tent with his big brother Alex. Naturally, since the tent hadn't been used for a while a little maintenence was necessary first. Apparently a mouse decided to chew his way into it while it was rolled up and stored in its bag over the course of the past two years. Nothing a little duct tape couldn't fix. As I said, it was good to go and provided much entertainment for the boys.

We also have a nice fire pit where we had a weiner roast and toasted marshmallows. I was cooking four hot dogs on one stick when suddenly the stick caught fire, burned in two, and dropped half a package of weiners into the flames. Nothing a rinse with the hose couldn't fix. Delicious. And Alex was quite helpful in keeping the fire going. It was nice to have a child laborer round up the hundreds of sticks it would take to keep the flame lit.

At 5:50 this morning a storm rolled in and we "slept" to the sounds of driving wind and rain as we silently prayed that the tent stakes were strong enought to keep us from blowing away to some god-awful place like Kansas or Illinois. Eventually, the storm let up and we went inside the house for breakfast. As I changed his diaper after we ate, I asked Truman if he had fun camping. He exclaimed, "Tooman happy!"

Me too, pal. Me too.