It did seem like a good idea at the time. How long has it been since we've been camping, Dan? The kids are starting school, we should go. Great idea, or...
The last time we went camping was an overnight ward campout in ND, three or four years ago. It was August and the temp dropped into the 30's that night. After that the moves, various trainings, and deployment just got in the way.
So we decided to start off small, just an overnight camping trip at our favorite lake spot. We did have a good time - hiking, fire, smores, tent, etc. It was a little hot but I'll take it over 30 degree weather for a tent. It all happened at the end.
We are packing up camp and getting ready to head back for swimming one last time before going home. The kids are off bush-whacking in the distance when Punx comes limping and crying back. He has been stung by a wasp in his leg through his pjs. All the kids come back and I go up to him when all of a sudden the wasp decides he has not proven his point. He flies up Punx nose, lets just say Punx starts freaking out, and it stung him inside his nose. Dan takes him to the bathroom to get some cold water on the stings and calm him down. A couple minutes later, Bug just starts screaming, one has stung him and flown into his shorts. Dan takes him into the bathroom and finds the wasp and kills it. DD runs to the girls bathroom and won't come out. I make Punx sit on a curb with a wet paper towel on both his stings and try to get Bug to do the same but he won't turn his back on the forest and, "I'm not going anywhere near a forest." I finally talk the boys into retreating into the truck although it does take some coercion since it involves going back to our campsite. Once they are safe in their refuge, they won't come out and freak if someone opens the door. It took 20 minutes to get DD out of the bathroom to run to the truck and they just sat in there while Dan and I packed up camp.
We had to drive to the other side of the campground to use the toilets before going home, and we have to work hard to convince them that the wasps had not followed us. We went home, we did not do one more swimming trip. Punx had a bloody nose this morning and it was the same side as the wasp sting and he was sure it was connected, five days later. Poor kids.
In other news, my class ends tomorrow and I get my two week summer vacationand the kids have already started, woo-hoo. Take final, finish paper, AC upstairs broken. I feel so behind in my to-do list I think it might lap me.
