Training for Camp

We have a bad habit of springing things on the kids. Usually we might say, guess where we are going tomorrow (sometimes it is today)? It might be a birthday party, it might be the mall, it might be a doctor's appointment, it might be a road trip, it might be flying on an airplane. Ryan gets a little anxious we've noticed (much more than Eric who typically gets over the change 2 minutes after we've explained why we are going where we are going).

Well, next week being Terry's birthday and that it coincides with a big 17 mile trail race that he likes to do, we decided to make it a family camping trip. Terry and I hadn't camped there since before eric was born so I thought it would be exciting. In telling a friend about the trip she tells me a little story about her friend who brought their kids 2 states away to go camping and the kids hated it! They had never been camping before and knew after the first night that they wanted to go back home. So with that new information, I decided we should only stay one night (even though it is reserved for 2 nights) and that we might want to get a separate tent for Terry so he can actually sleep the night before the race.

At this point it still didn't occur to me to tell the kids of the plans. I don't know why, maybe habit? Well, last night Eric made a comment about making a tent and referencing a tv show where I suppose they were camping. Hey, thanks for the reminder, son! So I had the bright idea to pitch the actual tent for them to "camp" in overnight. Well, it didn't fit in Eric's room, so we moved it to Ryan's room and it fit, but the poles didn't really. Somehow we got the poles strung through and the top of the test was about 2 inches under the ceiling fan. They thought it was the greatest thing. Even Ryan got excited about putting his blankets (gimmes) and pillows in the tent. Then getting books for us to read them for bed time. BUT when it came time to sleep, Ryan pitched a fit. He did NOT want to be in that tent. He kept saying over and over "eh-kick's woom, eh-kick's woom." "You can sleep in Eric's room if you want, but Eric wants to sleep in the tent." Cue hysteria.

Don't know what daddy did, but he got Ryan to sleep in the tent. And here he is at nap time today. Hopefully by Friday night, he will be comfortable enough in the tent, that his hysteria will just be from the chilly night air, no night light, and strange outdoor noises.