Camping, Part Two

I will briefly tell the snake tale and save the fire ring tale for another day. (You can thank me later that I have no intention of blogging about the stomach virus.)

Exploring nature was so fun at first. See?

I'm so glad she's past the putting everything in her mouth stage.

They wanted to keep it.

Guess whose arm that is?

Nope. Not mine.

Or the baby's.

Or Tracy's.

Yup. You guessed it.

She wanted to keep it, too. (What do you feed a snail anyway?)

The second night, we lit the fire to cook our meal and instead of fretting over who might fall in while it heated, we took a walk in the woods. There were lots of great trails, even though Sam wanted to explore off the trail. Whose kid IS she? It was a wide path. Beautiful day. Tracy, McKenna, all my kiddos and me....walking. I pushed the empty stroller, because everyone wanted to walk.

We meandered, really. Sometimes Ava was in front. Lots of times Sammie was 20 or 30 feet in front. At this moment, though, I happened to be in front, pushing the stroller, with everyone very close behind. I don't know how I saw it. Could've been one of three dozen large sticks we'd seen and picked up. It was a black snake, about as big around as my wrist, crossing the path just like it was headed to a friend's house. I know its length was as wide as the path, which I'm guessing was about three feet. Truthfully, I never got to find the tail end. I was too busy trying to turn everyone around without wetting my pants.

Again, I ask: does camping have to be outside?  More importantly, I'll repeat a question that my friend, Tracy, brought up.  Is it camping we really like or the idea of camping?  Is there ANY other way to have the memories, share the stories or bond as families?  Please, please, pleeeeease tell me there is!

Seeing the snake was the second time that day my heart stopped.  I'll tell about the first time another day...