A whole monitor full of it.  It's pretty terrifying when you've been away from it for a full month.  Yes, I realize it's been a month since I last updated.

I suck, I admit it.  Okay, actually it's been a fairly hectic month and I spent a large part of it deciding whether or not I was going to stick with this journal or stop writing it.  After a lot of thought, a bunch of lists, and some discussion, I'm still here.  It wasn't boredom that was stopping me, but some outside things and I've vowed to let ignore them and continue on.

With that being said, back to our normal programming.
 

Last week we went camping. In the woods, in a tent, just the two of us.  For the first time ever.  Now, don't get me wrong, I've been camping before.  My family used to go camping a lot when we were younger.  Camping was cheap back then and with four kids, well, you go with what's less expensive.

Hell, the money didn't matter to us kids.  When we talk about our childhood some of our favorite memories are of camping trips, just the 4, 5, 6 of us, depending on the year, in a tent in the woods.  I can remember spending hours playing cards or other silly games on the picnic table at a campsite with Mom and Dad.

Trudging to the bathroom (most of our camping was done in State Parks) all of us girls and Mom.  Her getting 3 little girls bathed and nightgowned for our walk back to the site, where we'd roast marshmallows and hot dogs, kiss Daddy goodnight and then climb into our sleeping bags in the middle of the green and yellowy orange canvas.  

Being sure to avoid the sides, in case of rain, since water would wick right through the canvas and soak our sleeping bags, pillows, and alas us.  I remember early mornings, Mom cooking on the campstove, Dad drinking coffee and us rubbing the sleep from our eyes.  Days filled with hiking the various trails, playing around the campsite, being general nuisances to our parents, but loving every minute of it.

When we moved to Virginia, our brother was born and we continued to camp.  Many times at the same park Tony and I spent last week at.  It's just a 15 minute drive from here, but as soon as you take the lefthand turn off the main road into the park, it's like an entirely different world.  The sounds of the highway dissappears and the trees engulf you in their loving shady arms.  

Before we even reached the contact station, us kids would be giddy with excitement, ready to burst out of the station wagon and out into nature.  

Before that though, we had to set up camp.  The tent had to be hauled out and set up.  Massive sections of aluminum poles, large plastic stakes and mound of canvas like you'd never seen, became a one room fortress that protected us from the dark, the scary shadows, the sounds of animals rustling around, and the weather.

Now, this was back before the one man set up tent.  It took Mom and Dad, with assistance from us kids (You, hold that corner, do not move) to get it erected.  The tent spread out, stakes placed in the ground, poles put togther, massive amounts of swearing, and then finally it appeared.  It was a thing of beauty.  Albeit, a thing that smelled of canvas, damp and the smell of freshly bathed children.

The old Coleman stove would be hauled out, filled with Coleman fuel, at the ready for the massive amounts of food that multiple growing children could put away.  Daddy's Coleman lantern stood Sentinel chasing away the shadows.

A campfire would burn throughout the evening, the product of wood and more swearing, as it took some time to start a fire when you had children dancing around eager to stick a piece of sugar on a long twig and set it ablaze.

Unfortunately, as kids do, we all grew up, got busy with our own lives.   It's been years since we've gone on a family camping trip.  Mom refuses to sleep on the ground anymore, Daddy needs a machine to sleep because of his apnea.  And well, the old tent, sleeping bags, lantern and stove were stolen not long after we moved into this house.  Someone broke into our shed, stole all of that and all our Christmas decorations.

It was a sad day in the Pietras household.  All those years of memories torn from us.  Oh, we went cabin camping a few times after that, but it was never the same.  I always missed sleeping in a tent, on the lumpy, bumpy ground.

One time a couple of years ago, I was at Target, I can't remember what I was looking for, but they had a tent and two sleeping bags on clearance.  Not the old canvas of my childhood, a maroon and grey nylon four person tent and thick cushy sleeping bags.

I threw them in the cart and without hesistation brought them home.  Through 2 years they sat.  Unloved, never even taken out of the box.  Until last week.  We wrangle our schedules, set the dates, and off we went.

Suzy