Every Spring Break my daughter proceeds to tell me all the fabulous places her friends are going or how the Jone’s family is going to get to have the week off. I usually end up working while she goes to a weekly camp-not a whole lot of fun.
Well not this year. I took a week of approved vacation months off in advance and I was determined that we would spend the week together even if we had no money to go anywhere. After all, it is just the quality time spent with your child that counts right?
Well I was in luck because I mentioned that I would like to do something family oriented with my 11 year old to my girlfriend and she mentioned that her family was thinking of going camping, maybe we could all go together.
I asked my daughter “Would you like to go on a three day cruise or go camping with our friends?” That wasn’t even a question to her because she screamed “Camping!” right away.
I had had some reservations and concerns because I try to be on a strict food plan most of the time and I don’t do well out doors because of migraines, but when I mentioned it to my daughter she was so elated and I knew this was something we needed to do. Camping was now going to be our plan if even for a couple of days.
In the weeks to follow we made up our lists and food actually wasn’t a problem because I just try not to eat gluten products so camping worked out well for us. Our friends have a camper that sleeps 6 and was equipped with all the comforts of home so I could refrigerate anything I didn’t want to keep in a cooler.
We ended up having a great time. We really just took it easy. We played games like Dominoes, sat around the campfire and told stories. One night we had a hula hoop contest with hoops borrowed from the local campground host. Every night the kids giggled themselves to sleep, but were ready for another day of trekking around the next morning.
We had to come back a day early to take care of appointments, but this gave us time for the two of us as well.
Now that we are back to feeling the enjoyment of nature and watching wildlife and plants, we are planning on planting a small garden this weekend.
It was such a great weekend with friends and no electronics, except for the 20 minutes of use we gave the kids so the adults could lay down after the beach one day. I think we actually fell asleep for 45 minutes, but what is better than an air conditioned camper after a hot spring day in Florida.
I can’t wait to do it again and of course my daughter said it was the best vacation she had ever had.
