We all know that when you have kids you make sacrifices, lots of them. Tent camping is one of those big sacrifices for me. You would have thought that we were going to Disneyland as excited as they were to go camping at the beach and sleep in a tent. Camping is where nightmares memories are made and most people love it. Me on the other hand, I’d rather have a filling replaced. I have many memories I love from growing up camping but most of those times were camping in a camper, not a tent.
After getting to bed at 10:30 (which is WAY past my kids bedtime) we drifted off to sleep. At 12:30 am I awoke to the neighbors arriving and setting up camp, loudly. Problem #1, campgrounds are loud and tents are not noise proof. Problem #2 my sciatic pain was shooting down both legs and I couldn’t get back to sleep. Problem #3 I had to pee. I had made sure to basically drink nothing all day so problem #3 wouldn’t arise. So you see the torture began much earlier in the day. I was dehydrated and yet, I still had to pee. Seriously the bladder of an 80 year old. Problem #4, your face gets really cold. It’s like your body and head aren’t even connected because they are such different temperatures. Oh the agony.
I tried to distract myself with reading blogs, checking fb and reading the news headlines. After reading the news and seeing 3 stories of women either being kidnapped, assaulted and left for dead or harmed in some way I was not about to leave the tent and trek off into the dark to find the toilet. At that point I didn’t know which was worse, the sciatic pain or the pain from my ever expanding bladder on the verge of exploding. About 3 am I took some Aleve and about 4 am drifted off to sleep for a little bit until it was light enough to go to the bathroom and make it back alive. This people, is why I hate tent camping. It’s like willingly lying down and being run over by a truck multiple times.
Besides the actual camping part it was so fun to be at the beach. It’s a happy place for all of us. It was beautiful, the kids had a blast, we enjoyed time with friends, had a bonfire on the beach and ate s’mores, saw a baby star fish, crab and big jelly fish wash up on shore and came home with pounds of sand in places it should never be allowed.
Although much of our over-nighter was brutal for me personally, I love seeing the joy and excitement on the faces of my kids. I’ll willingly sacrifice (once a year) for their camping needs. Oh the things you do for love.
