camping trip

...just returned from a three day, two night camping trip--a first camping trip with the triplets. It involved a four to five hour drive in a packed mini-van with my neighbor and her six year old son, heavy rain both evenings, and the coordination of activities and meals among a group of 11 adults and 16 children, which included both my husband's brother's and sister's families and two other families...think about it...

Bottom line:
it was wonderful.

Highlights:
After a particularly heavy downpour on the first evening and as the sun was coming back out, Cinderella spotted a rainbow in the sky between two trees. She had never seen a real one before, and we hadn't been looking for one. She just saw it. All the kids in our group ran over to look at the rainbow. It was very exciting for her. That night she couldn't get to sleep until she had recounted the events of the day down to the smallest detail.

On the second night, S. Judy was exhausted after a long day of hiking and rafting in the hot sun. Wearing her pink Dora poncho and eating a soggy hotdog under a flimsy canopy in the midst of a shower, she started crying inconsolably, saying, "I miss my Papa and Nama" which is what she calls my parents. She cheered up when we brought out the pink cookies with sprinkles and the glow-in-the-dark bracelets.

Jasmine was in her element during the entire trip. She was eager to participate in every new adventure...the first one of the three to swim in the river--even under water--and she didn't complain about the rocks on the bottom or the leaves floating in it. She never whined about the rain or mud, negotiated new and old friendships with ease, and went to sleep with little help each night. On the second night, after I had spent some time coaxing her tired sisters into their pjs on top of wobbly air matteresses, I looked over and found that she had changed and gotten into her sleeping bag all by herself. She had her animal camping pillow under her head and her eyes closed. As my neighbor said, she was "impressive."

This morning when Cinderella woke up in her own bed, she asked me (half-joking, I think), "Was the camping trip real or a dream?"

Best Idea:
...bringing sketch books and crayons for each girl in their own little backpacks. On our hike, the girls stopped spontaneously at the edge of a waterfall to draw what they saw...the falling water, a butterfly, flowers, etc. My husband had even packed their backpacks with tape so that they could tape leaves and flower petals into their books. This turned out to be one of the nicest, quietest moments of the trip.