Last weekend I packed up my Kinfolk Magazine and took it…um…I mean, Drew packed up me and Nathaniel and took us camping. I was sick, so Kinfolk and I decided to hang back at the campsite while Drew and Nathaniel went for a walk.
Kinfolk was looking, well…just so KINFOLK out there that I couldn’t help but take its photo a few times.
Bloggers who love Kinfolk, you understand, right?
Moving on.
It was Nathaniel’s first camping trip and he had so much fun. He loved running around the campsite, zooming his monster trucks through the dirt, sleeping and waking up in the tent, and making and (mostly) eating s’mores. The next morning he watched Drew make pancakes before we packed everything up and headed up to Sunrise.
Look at him giving me the photo avoiding sideways glance.
Nathaniel fell asleep on the way to the park. When he woke up and saw the mountains the first thing he said was, “I want to go up there someday.”
The weather was unseasonably warm. It was almost 90 degrees up there, which is insane for this area. There was snow on the ground while we were sweating. Of course that was the coolest thing ever to this kid.
I’m not a camper. I’ve only been camping three times in my adult life, once in Ojai, California and twice in Washington, all with Drew. We’ve only stayed overnight one night at a time. I went camping at a Florida beach campground with a friend when I was about 15. I think we were there for about 10 days. We shared a tent with her mom and stepdad and spent most of our time on the beach, meeting boys and drinking really bad alcohol that we buried in the sand the previous day. Sorry, Mom.
Next time we’re staying two nights. Drew and I talked about how hard it is to turn off your brain and just sink into the relaxing presence that comes with camping. I had no interwebs or phone for almost 24 hours, and it was really nice. I loved sitting in my camping chair and reading books and magazines. When Nathaniel told me a story about a “pancake fly” I whipped out my sketchbook and pencils and proceeded to draw one. It was a really bad drawing, but still.
Our Adventure Club doesn’t discriminate. We’re a city family and a camping family. We love technology and like to get away from it every now and then. Most of all we love getting chances like this to spend time together, without the distraction of “things to do.” There was no other agenda but being together.