2009 Camping Trips -- A Year In Review (Part 1 of 7 )

Before I start telling the details of our actual trips, it is only fair to say what prompted the start of the Wagerman Family Camping Experience. When Doug and I got married he had a pop-up camper. We took one family camping trip in it to Knobel's. The details of this trip are hazy to me. I believe most of that trip has been blocked from my psyche much like a person experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder but what I do remember was that we returned home and a few months later I became pregnant with Ariel and thus told Doug, "Let's sell the camper. I do not ever foresee us camping again!".

Let's just say, times change and so did I because sometime in 2008 I found myself thinking about what great experiences we could have as a family taking camping trips to different places. We took a few trips (mainly with Ariel's Brownie Troop) and camped in tents. Invariably, it seemed to always be raining as we set-up the tent and sometimes I woke up shivering I was so cold but mostly what we had was a lot of fun. We found out that our dog, Riley, was born to camp. He took to tent camping immediately. Settling in on his dog bed and going right to sleep when it was bed time. The kids loved it too. BUT, tent camping wasn't exactly what I had in mind for our future camping experiences so I started to think that maybe we should get a camper and Doug, who has me all figured out, was just patiently waiting for me to come around to this way of thinking.

Thus, in the beginning of 2009 we started thinking about what type of camper we wanted. I liked the idea of a pop-up because it was a step-up from tent camping in that we would still be having that "camping experience" of sleeping under canvas but with some amenities that I really decided I couldn't live without such as a toilet for those middle of the night potty breaks and heat and air condition which also come in handy!

With a strict budget in mind we started scouring Craigslist, went to the RV show and spent a few days visiting RV dealers....the result of our search as found on Craigslist was

The Countdown Begins

Time passess so quickly for me these days and there are times when I would give anything to slow it all down and yet I still find myself getting caught up in the countdown to the big events, yeah well, who am I kidding? I count down to small events too but anyhow......

Countdowns.....the big one started today in our house. It's December 1st -- and the countdown to Christmas begins! Christmas is my favorite holiday. I love the excitement that surrounds it...the magic, the feelings of love and generosity and that we can stretch out all of these great feelings and make them last for a whole month.

This year, my kids are 9 and 6, and I decided that I was going to make each day of this month count...instill a little Christmas Magic into our lives every day.

Thus, our advent calendar Christmas countdown with a special activity placed inside for each day!

Today was writing the "official" letter to Santa and taking it to the North Pole express mail box located at The Avenue. I say official letter because in the last few weeks, Ariel and Carter have been writing varations of this letter on scraps of paper, post it notes and Ariel even typed hers.

So, after school I got out some Santa stationary and the kids wrote their letters. Both being sure to note their "goodness" less Santa might somehow mistakenly have them down on the Naughty side of the list!!!

Off we went to mail our letters with a stop to pick up my nephew. All three kids, their letters clutched in hand marched toward the mail box and carefully placed them inside to await delivery to the North Pole! Ahh, yes....the Christmas Magic begins.

On a side note, I have another smaller countdown going on......I am not-so patiently counting down the days until my husband comes home from his hunting trip. I miss him terribly. Even after 11 years, this week does not get any easier!