Back-Packing

Getting ready to go anywhere is a big job around here. The gardens, the animals, everybody's responsibilities, etc... have to be squared away and it's overwhelming sometimes, but so worth getting away. We realize we all need it. Camping is special time with just the kids and it's all so new to the twins.

The twins took to back-packing pretty easily. We chose a pretty smooth trail and it wasn't long. I packed the twins each a small back-pack with just their clothes and a bag of trail mix each. They were so excited about them that they wanted to carry them around while we got ready and I told them absolutely not. They must put them by the door so that when it was time to load up we would have everything we needed and nothing would be forgotten.

The trip didn't exactly start off on the right foot. I was NOT happy with Buster for peeing all over his clothes and his car seat before we even left the driveway! I was thinking it was a good thing I had packed a couple extra changes of clothes for him - until we arrived at our first camping place only to find that his back-pack was not in the car at all. He had been carrying it around and it was not by the door when we loaded up. No one had noticed. He was really disappointed not to have a back-pack. For any other child this would have been a lesson in obedience. For this child, I'm not so sure. He continued to pee his one pair of shorts over and over even though we were vigilant about taking him to go pee.  By the end of the second day he stunk big time and was raw! (Lest anyone think I should have packed pull ups, they would have been in his back-pack at home anyway, and I have a good reason for NOT using the pull ups.) We were camping on the beach and it was an hour's walk to any sort of clean water source and it was all we could do to keep up with the drinking and cooking demands so I had to wash him in ocean water (We were not in Florida or any other warm ocean State, by the way!) then dress him in flowered panties and purple leggings.  Cute- NOT! Anyway, we had found Vanessa's book bag in the car and put a few odds and ends in it for Buster to carry so he could be a part of the back-packing. He liked it for about a thousand feet then he announced he was "tired of the pack-pack!" Tough, luck, Charlie Brown, that's what back-packing was all about - I got tired of mine, too :-)

We loved camping on the ocean. The roar of the waves within a few feet of the tent in the night was incredible. The twins played in the sand a lot. On the last morning Steve helped them build a huge castle. Missy asked for a hot shower first thing in the morning. It's hard to know what she was thinking. There wasn't even an outhouse.

Little Missy learned a great lesson in obedience. I know for her it hit home. I was cooking supper on a little canister stove between a rock wall and a board Steve had set up for me. We're talking fire, wind, boiling water, and a very tippy board - in other words: Danger. Little Missy kept tipping the board. I asked her to NOT touch. After the third time of not obeying I thought of the worst consequence possible to instill a little fear in her that would make her mind and keep us all safe. I never thought for one second she would challenge that. I said, "If you do that one more time, you will not get any noodles."  Maybe I should have banished her to the tent, or maybe I should have made her sit in her Dad's lap, or whatever, but obviously this was not well thought through.... and within 5 seconds she was without noodles. She waited till I had my attention on the pot then, according to the girls, she looked at me and quick as a flash she flipped the board. When I glanced up she was looking away as though nothing in the world had happened.  She was shocked and surprised that she lost her noodles. How's that?

Anyway, memories were made.  Generally the twins handled everything like troopers and according to Buster,  back-packing is fun. There were few melt downs or reasons for tears. Buster lives in a constant state of fear - so new situations do highlight those fears, but over all he did well and did not fall apart. It's good to rough it sometimes.

P.S. Did think of a time when Buster nearly lost it, and the only value I have in writing this particular episode out is in what I am trying to learn from what happened after more than what happened during. We were walking the beach and when we came to a fresh water supply Steve and the girls went to work with the water filter filling up our water containers and the twins and I turned around to head back to the camp site. The further we got from Dad and the girls the more anxious the little guy appeared. Pretty soon he was acting freaked out; Jumping at the crash of a wave, startling at the call of a seagull, flipping out if his sister got behind him where he couldn't see her.  Pretty soon he started crying and I figured we were headed towards hysteria. I tried comforting, tried everything in the book, actually... He refused to talk. Would not answer questions, couldn't come up with why he was getting worked up, etc... I knelt on the beach and decided the best thing was to have him STOP crying because he was only making himself feel worse. I was a tad frustrated on not being able to get him to converse with me. Finally he stopped and we carried on.

As soon as the girls were within sight Buster ran to them and told him the whole scenario... no details missing! "Nothing to be afraid of. Take a deep breath, breath slow, stop crying...."  All the words I had used he repeated. I'm trying to figure this out... he could verbalize NOTHING for me and yet he could tell the whole story and repeat me word for word for the girls.