Small Packages

We surprised the kiddos this weekend with the news that we'd purchased a camper.  Although we didn't go into much detail, looking back, I'm sure the lack of explanation left it to their imaginations.  As with all kids, bigger is better and they were already dreaming of a house on wheels, complete with flat screens and bathrooms.  You can imagine their shock when Tim backed in the compact little white box that is our "new to us" pop-up camper.

"Is this a joke?" was basically the expression they both gave us and pint-size Tina even said, "There is no way we're fitting in that!"  Tim chuckled and set to unhooking and opening it to it's full capacity.  Even expanded, it wasn't quite what they expected, although upon further inspection they did show a little excitement.  In fact, Noah wanted to sleep in it that evening.  Thankfully, it hadn't went through our cleaning detail and we didn't allow it because a huge storm passed through that night.  Having left it open to air out, we felt if it survived that storm, we'd made a good purchase!

Tim and I were truly like little children on Christmas morning though, as our evening pillow talk was of plans and trips to be.  We had already been discussing our spring break options when we happened upon this camper deal.  Plans to visit the mountains were tossed out the window in favor of breaking in the camper by the lake.  After many suggestions and ideas from friends, we opted for familiar territory semi-close to home for our first outing.  I made the reservations last night, though I felt like a newbie not yet understanding all the camper terminology.  Hopefully it meets our expectations when we get there and we don't reenact one of the kids favorite funny movies, "RV"!

It's not that we're new to camping.  We own tents and try to squeeze in a camping trip at least once a year.  It's harder with tents though.  It seems there's more to pack, more to plan, and the weather is the predictor of the trip.  I'm somewhat finicky and don't enjoy being too hot or too cold, so in Kentucky this leaves me with few weekends to camp.  This past season, because of Tim's back we missed out entirely.  I just couldn't ask him to sleep on the ground, on an air mattress, while visiting the chiropractor 2-3x a week!

Labor Day weekend 2010 Tim, Noah, and I loved our Camping/Boating Trip to Livermore.  It was the perfect weather weekend with sunshine in the day for boating and cool evenings so we could snuggle under the stars.  The year before, Tim surprised us with a trip, as we were Shipwrecked-on-a-private-island.  He took us by boat to a remote location that we'll always fond memories of, even if I had to pee on a log.  You can read about either or both trips by clicking on the links above.

Even though our pop-up is really nothing more than a portable tent on wheels, with the addition of tiny kitchen, I have grand plans for it.  Because I know good things really do come in small packages and I can't wait to open ours to enjoy every moment and memory!