Backyard Camping

One of the items on our summer bucket list was backyard camping. I don't know what we were thinking -- we didn't even own a tent! But as luck would have it, friends who camp a lot with their large family just recently bought a new tent, and we are the lucky recipients of their old one.

Fortunately, the weather is better for camping now than it would have been over the summer. Last Friday was the perfect night -- not too cold, not too hot, clear skies, and no major sporting events to miss.

We lit a roaring fire, roasted marshmallows, made s'mores, played with glow sticks, and then MJ and I read by the fire while the kids went to bed (and oodles of giggles came from the tent). It was really an idyllic evening.

(The night time, however, was a different story -- it was shockingly loud in our neighborhood all night, Amber was restless, MJ's back was in awful pain even with an air mattress, and I couldn't sleep a wink. But hey -- the kids had a blast! And we can handle it once a year!)