We just got back from Sarah’s family campout, and as usual, had an amazing time. Sarah’s been going since she was 4, this was my 5th, and Keana’s 3rd. I think Keana holds the camp record for average appearances; she’s batting a thousand so far. She’s really the only kid at the campout these days as most of our peers have opted out of the baby-making for the time being. This, of course, has its advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, we have unlimited baby-sitters and Keana steals the show in the “under 18 category” every time. But on the other hand, we don’t have anyone else to hang out with that’s on parent duty. So while the moon rises and the drums rage on into the night and campers wander from circle to circle, fire to fire, we get out the tooth brushes, pack it in, and hunker down for an early, cold morning.
And yes, Keana woke early every morning, poked her tiny head out of the tent divider in our ginormous tent, and eagerly, excitedly squealed, “I’m awake! Let’s go out and play!” followed closely by, “Grandma’s awake. Can we go visit? You can come.” It was wonderful, heart-melting, and exhausting all at once. You know how it is when you’re camping and it’s so damn cold in the morning that you don’t even want to wake up to go out to pee? Well, imagine that with a two-year-old with endless energy and amazing puppy-dog blue eyes begging you to go play with her. Luckily Grandma and Grandpa were awake shortly after to entertain her while we cooked breakfast. Most of the mornings we would play in the meadow with bubbles and coloring books and stickers, eat second breakfasts, then go down for a nap around 11 or 12. Sarah and I would spend that nap time doing dishes from breakfast, getting things together for the afternoon trip to the river, and resting. Once Keana woke up, it was time to go-go-go again in a whirlwind of diaper change, outfit change, lunch eating, and hiking down to the river. Once we got to the river I would hold Keana and jump from rock-to-rock to get to the perfect spot where the water was deep, but calm. Most of the campers hung out at the river during the day, but by the time we got down there, everyone else was back up at their camps snacking and resting before dinner. So we enjoyed the mellow company that remained and spent the time splashing in the water and cringing and laughing at the crispness of the river.
Keana continued to amaze us with her knack for remembering names and faces. When we arrived on Tuesday (July 24, 2007), Sarah’s uncle Jim and Aunt Christina came to greet us as we set up camp. We joked about how we would definitely be the first ones up to wake the camp, and Jim said he’s up having coffee by 6:30 a.m. and invited us over. I told him not to joke because not only would we be up, but Keana would be talking up a non-stop storm. The next morning Keana woke up at 5:30 a.m. and once we got out of the tent she said, “Let’s go visit Jim.” Thinking it would be funny to take Jim up on his word, we walked over to his camp for a little coffee visit. In the end it didn’t quite work out because although Jim was up, let’s just say he wasn’t quite ready, so Keana and I turned right around back to our own camp. Keana didn’t quite understand and kept saying, “But I want to visit Jim!” Some fresh cherries quickly erased her mind of our previous task and she was on to new things instantly. It wasn’t long though before she was saying, “Let’s visit Christina!”—baby’s got a memory like a pachyderm.
The thing that’s really beautiful about the campout though is the community. Some people are related by blood, some by marriage, and the rest by friendship or acquaintance, but everyone is accepted and made to feel like blood. This community is fostered through a Friday night cocktail party that always has a theme- this year was Caribbean- and a Saturday night potluck where all those camping bring food to share in a big sit-down dinner in the meadow. On Friday evening Sarah and I were working on getting our food contribution to the cocktail party together and Keana was off having fun at Grandma’s camp. As I flipped the steak on the bbq I glanced across the meadow and saw Keana holding court with Sarah’s brother Michael, sister Rachel, and their camp-mates Alexis, her brother Neal, Eli, and Emily (and maybe more?). Emily’s mom, Lorraine, also spent quite a bit of time keeping Keana entertained too. It was so nice to be able to send Keana off across the meadow to an entire group of people that she not only loved but that we could trust. It was also cool to see so many youngsters between 18 and 21 show so much love for Keana.
Sarah and I also got some down time too. While Keana slept in our tent-mansion nearby, we hung out around the campfire in the evenings with Iana, her boyfriend Ryan, Joscelyn and her boyfriend Jahee, our camp neighbor Sue and her boys Travis and Finn, cousin Nathan and his girl Jennie, Grandma Jennie and Grandpa John of course, Uncle Jim and Aunt Christina, and so many others. I’m trying to get as many names as I can in here so years from now it will spark our memory and we can tell Keana about her early family and friends at these crazy campouts. I know this isn’t everyone, and the list changes from year to year, but the bottom line is that there are many, many wonderful people that we share this camping experience with.
Packing up is tough, and leaving is even harder, but with help from the grandparents we got everything packed up and were on the road by 1 p.m. on Sunday (July 29). The trip to the campout was smooth, but the trip home was not. Keana was all tuckered out and so were we. She made it to Hwy 5 before we were forced to sing “the Tigger song” from Winnie the Pooh about 100 times to keep her pacified. And eventually she only wanted Sarah to sing it. That lasted until outside Livermore at which point Keana was angry. Actually, the word “angry” makes it sound slightly unpleasant. This was worse. She was outright pissed. She began crying and it quickly turned into screams of rage and frustration. We finally pulled off the highway into Livermore, just an hour from home, and had some burgers. She was easily pacified once she got out of the car but this girl has a temper. She’s all “cinnamon and spice” 99% of the time, but when it comes time to rage, she let’s_it_out. The trip to the campout took about 6 hours and the trip home took about 7.5.
Luckily that trip home didn’t taint Keana’s campout experience. The very next day she was already talking about going back to the campout and even today, while she washed her hands, talked about how they were “dirty from the campout”. So the campout is definitely on the list for next year, and we’ll be packing for four with an emphasis on the family in “family campout”.