Guest Post by Timber Dawson

We put the kids to bed in the tent, then walked down to the stream.  It was about a one-minute walk away from camp.  We went down there and sat on the bridge and watched fireflies and talked.  We couldn’t help but reminisce.   Remember that first camping trip we took them on together several years ago?  Holy cow.  That camping trip was miserable.  We’d left for that trip with such high expectations of bringing our kids into our world of camping and sharing our love of the outdoors with them.  They brought us back to the reality of a 2 ½-year old and a 3-month old.  Jaedin nearly drown, Jenacy cried A LOT, and they both didn’t enjoy themselves.  I remember on the last night of that trip we were sitting under a bridge watching glow worms in the mud and we were watching the group of young adults across the river from us laughing and having a blast together.  That river symbolized a very real gap in the no-responsibilities young adults that we used to be, to the parents we now were.  I still vividly remember sitting there and just being depressed.  Our fun camping days were over.

Fast forward a couple years.  There we were again, 2 kids sleeping in the tent, and us on a bridge nearby, watching glow bugs.  My husband and I were each smiling ear to ear and talking about what an amazingly fun day we’d just had!  So many stories of cute things each kid said and did.  Of Jaedin wishing on a star for a pet bat because one flew by right as he was wishing.  Of Jenacy giggling hysterically as she threw rocks in the stream.  Of each of them saying, “Thank you so much for bringing me camping!  I love camping!”  Of Jaedin coming up to me and saying, “This is the best day ever, Mom!”  Of very un-scary scary stories, and of singing silly songs while we hiked.  And two tuckered out kids, happily curled up together in the tent.  I wished that we could go back several years and tell ourselves, "Just you wait!"

There are moments in every family where the shared experience binds you together.  This camping trip was one of those moments.  Five miles of backpacking into the wilderness and an evening of just the 4 of us cooking over a campfire, laughing, cuddling, and telling stories.  That is a night that we’ll all remember forever.   That moment is what being a family is all about.  It was a memory that I will always remember fondly.  Our kids entered our world of wilderness that day, and they’ve never left.

- Timber Dawson
You can check out Timber's blog here.