Keeping Busy

Becky has been gone for a week and an half at this point and we have been very busy. We have been camping, I have been working during the day two days a week, Kai has been having play dates with friends from the rec centre and from church. Our big adventure so far occurred last friday.

After finishing work at the rec centre last Friday afternoon Kai and I went on an overnight backpacking trip. We went to the James Peak Wilderness area for a fun little excursion into the woods. We hiked in about 1.5 km (1 mile) and we found a campsite beside South Boulder Creek. Since there was a fire ban on at the time I knew that the best thing would be for us to eat dehydrated meals. The plan was to have some mac and cheese for dinner but first we had set up the tent because it looked like we were going to get some rain. Lo and behold just after I had poured the boiling water into the container of our high calorie, high sodium dinner the skies opened up. We quickly ran to the tent and proceeded to have a fun wrestling match for about ten minutes. Once out of the tent I noticed that it hadn't rained as much as we thought or had heard hitting the tent. We were able to find a dry spot under a nearby tree and munched on our dinner. After dinner I hung up the food bag while Kai played in the tent again. I had forgot my watch so I had no idea what the time was during this whole trip but i figured it was probably getting close to bed time so after spending a fair bit of time throwing rocks into the creek we headed for bed.

Kids and flashlights have always been a good match in the outdoors. Kai was insistent that the headlamp that I had packed was going to be his for the night. As we lay in our sleeping bags we made hand shadows against the wall and ceiling of the tent, listened to the sounds of the night and talked about the animals that live in the woods. The next thing I remember I was waking up to loud claps of thunder and pouring rain. I have no idea how long I had been asleep but at least Kai had fallen asleep and was currently sleeping through the storm. Oh, wait no he's not, you know when you have a thought about something and the opposite happens. Well he had been asleep but now he was awake. He told me that he was scared of the storm but that he was going to play with the headlamp and he would feel better. Once again I fell asleep and he stayed awake. I woke up again later only this time he stayed asleep until what I can only guess was about 5:30am.

After having a breakfast of instant oatmeal and and apple we packed up camp (because it looked like more rain) and hiked back to the van, arriving at 9am. No sooner had I put my pack in the van and started down the road towards home when Kai asked "Can we go camping again Dad?"