We just got back from the longest camping trip our family has ever taken so obviously I have a lot of things I want to tell you and a lot of pictures to share but I don’t want to overwhelm you guys with all the things so I’ll attempt brevity here.

You might be asking yourself, “What kind of crazy person would agree to sleep in a tent for five nights????” I know, right? But the idea came to me when I was trying to come to terms with my ten year old son going to a 3 night cub scout camp by himself that was a 2 hour drive away. Logical Jen said “he’ll be fine, he’ll have so much fun!!” but Anxiety Jen wasn’t having it and was dreading the idea of being so far away. She had lots of super sensible / shrieking insensible gibberish reasons for being apprehensive.

So the two Jens in my head worked together to find a compromise and that compromise was for the rest of us to take a camping trip of our own nearby so that we’d have a shorter drive if anything happened (nothing happened) and I’d be too busy to go all mopey zoo lion for three days (it worked). I didn’t want MM to miss out on our camping trip though so I added an extra two nights onto the trip so that we’d get some quality family time in with all four members of the family, too. My husband meanwhile heard, “Wanna go camping for 5 nights???” and was smart enough to jump on the opportunity before I came to my senses.

Annnnnyway, we went, we survived, there are pictures to share and stories to tell but here’s the cliffs notes version.

5 Best Things

1 – Wizard Quest : The first day of our trip we took the kids to Wizard Quest while we waited for our check in time at the campground. It’s kind of a labyrinth / scavenger hunt / puzzle that has you walking through a 13000 square quadrasphere (as they call it) solving riddles and puzzles and finding clues throughout the building. We played through the 75 minute beginners level and didn’t finish our mission but still had a great time. I recommend going with a mix of ages because you’ll want little kids to crawl through some of the little tunnels and tubes but you’ll need some big kids / adults to figure out some of the puzzles.

2 – Enjoying beautiful sunsets on the river. We stayed at the Holiday Shores campground in the Wisconsin Dells which is close in proximity to all of the local waterparks and tourist traps but nestled into the woods a bit and right next to the Upper Dells River which you can see in most of the pictures above. Our camp site was right on that river and we took full advantage. Dan and the kids did a bit of fishing and I took lots of pictures at sunset and it made a nice backdrop to all of our camping festivities. The camp ground has a beach area on the river also as well as boat rentals and more.

3 – We pretty much had the campground and the Dells area to ourselves. Camping during the week meant that the first four days were pretty low key. It wasn’t until Thursday night that things picked up and by Saturday it was so crowded at both the campground and the Wisconsin Dells area that we were kind of thrilled to be leaving which was honestly perfect timing. I will have to remember this for our next trip.

4 – We got a lot of quality one on one time with our six year old daughter. A fringe benefit to the whole cub scout camp thing was the ease of parenting just one child for basically the first time in nearly seven years. It was kind of a cakewalk by comparison, you know? We had a lot of fun playing mini golf at Pirate’s Cove, walking the Broadway strip, going to a paint ball range, getting ice cream and seeing Finding Dory together. I think she enjoyed being the center of attention for a few days.

5 – I walked an average of 10,000 step every day that we were there so I probably look like a super model now. I think 4,000 of those steps were probably going to the bathroom.

5 Worst Things

1 – Having to walk 5 minutes to the bathroom every time I had to pee or a child had to pee. Especially fun in the middle of the night. The best part about coming home was closer proximity to bathrooms, honestly.

2 – I spent a part of every day being either too hot or too cold and most days I experienced both. Thank god for bandanas, because I was a sweaty hot mess for most of the trip.

3 – When the campground did fill up, the constant stream of people definitely got to me. The campsites were decent sized but felt very pushed together once we got closer to the weekend. And we had some pretty noisy neighbors that kept us up a few nights. This is nothing new and pretty par for the course with camping.

4 – I went through cell phone battery packs like they were going out of style, and wasn’t really doing all that much. My phone and I were at war for much of the trip because every time we drove twenty minutes in any direction it decided I had no coverage and didn’t know where we were anymore until I restarted and then it was fine again. First world problems, I know.

5 – I slept in a tent for five nights. My back hates me.

#likeagirl: Super proud of setting up the tent behind us all by ourselves!

Sometimes I have a tendency to sell myself short. I will let other people do things for me simply  because I believe they can do it better, faster, stronger (more than ever our work is never ooo-ooover). But how do you grow that way? Last weekend in the woods, I learned that I know how to set up a tent. After 6 years or so of camping with DH, I actually committed this skill to memory. And did it. #likeagirl

They don’t need toys and gadgets

No matter how many toys you buy them, how many gadgets they own – a kid with some sticks and rocks and a few leaves has everything they need to have fun. Minutes after arriving at the campsite, they were busy digging trenches and building fairy houses. You don’t have to tell kids how to play in the dirt – this knowledge resides at the core of their very being.

You can’t tell the weather what time it is.

Sometimes you have to roll with the punches. The weather doesn’t care that it’s Father’s Day weekend and you have a limited amount of time for Fun in the Sun memories. Go with the flow, indulge in rainy day tent cuddles, catch up on your reading pile. Breathe.

Stop and look around.

Don’t forget to reevaluate your day often, especially on a “bad day” – because a day doesn’t have to continue being bad. You can always find beauty in it if you slow down and look. You can always pause, breathe in the dewy air and start fresh. Ignore the rainy moments, the itchy bug bites and the muddy trails and find your zen again.

Don’t be afraid to do your own thing.

Sometimes you have to admit what you need and pursue it, even if your needs differ from the crowd. There are times for rolling with the punches and there are times for saying, “See you in 30 minutes. We’re going to go enjoy the beach now.”

Let go of perfection and you’ll find it.

Sometimes “perfect poses” are over rated. Sometimes the giggles can’t be contained and make a beautiful moment even better. Sometimes the beautiful moments are just as much in the people as they are in the place.

Plans are made to be broken.

“The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men; Gang aft agley” (translation: …often go awry | source: Robert Burns). I think I instinctively knew that if we planned for one of our meals to be the fish caught by my husband and friends, that somehow we would not be eating fish. It’s not that I don’t think they can catch fish, it’s just that I knew it was foolish to rely on it. Apparently it was foolish to rely on my backup plan, too, of bratwurst and hot dogs. Between the lack of fish and the ever persistent rain, we opted to seek out the next best thing: Fried fish, followed by frozen custard: safely indoors.

Fear is a powerful thing.

I’ve been afraid before. I’ve avoided things simply because my fear said “no, don’t do that.” Sometimes they are silly, sometimes not. But I’ve rarely pushed too far against that instinct. I didn’t know the physical manifestations that accompany fear when you push on. The way your feet try to betray you and your breath feels constricted. The way time slows down for you but seems in fast forward for everyone else who joyfully prances ahead to see the cool thing. It’s surreal to watch others around you not affected by these invisible forces.

Logic told me that the infinity room was something worth pushing ahead for and that it was unlikely to fail me. I wanted to reach the end, to see the big sights. I wanted it even more when I realized how hard it would be for me to walk that short walk to get there. I forged ahead slowly and I’m proud of myself, but I felt much better a few steps back as the air returned to normal thickness and my heart stopped hammering in my chest.

Where there is a photo op, we’ll be there.

This where I wrap up my post with a sweet, heart warming paragraph about how great my family is and my words sort of contradict the things I’ve already written but also tie them together beautifully. But sometimes you don’t need to tie it all together. Life isn’t a perfectly tied bow. It’s a series of semi-unrelated incidents that only make sense if you step back far enough to let them blur together. If you stop looking at them altogether and look at the faces around you instead. Because at the end of the day, the faces are all that matters. 

We went on vacation this week. Our kids have spring break a few weeks before the rest of the town. A fringe benefit to private education is having Spring Break all to ourselves I guess. That and the stellar education and lack of common core. Whatev.

We stayed at the Mount Olympus Hotel Rome. I’m not sure I can recommend it in good conscience. We’ve been to better places. But that’s coming from the snooty grown ups who were like “These beds are uncomfortable” / “this indoor waterpark reeks of chlorine and the bottom of the pools feel like knives in my feet” / “stuff seems kinda run down” / “stop trying to upsell me” – that kinda stuff. My kids didn’t really notice any of that.

They noticed:

TEACUPS!!! (and bumper cars and go karts and laser tag and MORE)

thank you God, for this delicious slushee

Being able to go to the water park in March!!

So yeah the kids thought Mount Olympus was awesome. And at the end of the day, that’s what really matters. Dan and I decided to check out of some the tourist attractions we’ve ignored in the past because “there is so much to do right here at the hotel!!!” Without that excuse holding us back, we  finally checked out:

TOP SECRET

This place is ridiculous in kind of a great way. They were running a discount that day so we all got in for $16. A lot of the hotels in the area have discounts for stuff like this, too. The premise is that in 2002 the White House somehow crash landed upside down in the Wisconsin Dells. Now it’s a tourist attraction. Like furniture is bolted hanging from the ceilings and there are weird creepy passages and famous historical guys lurking about. It’s campy entertainment and we kind of loved it. We also went to the…

Tommy Bartlett Exploratory

More campy fun. This place is kinda like a kid’s science museum and kind of like a Star Wars rip off theme park. You barely know what you are walking into when you go inside and three hours later when you stumble back outside you will have no idea how so much time as gone by. But in addition to the silly Star Wars-esque robots there are tons of hands on science-y exhibits that the whole family geeked out over. Some highlights included:

attempting to create the same patterns by describing the pattern to each other

and:

Lifting a 5,000 ton SUV using a giant lever system.

And of course the best part about going on vacation is how comfortable your bed feels when you finally get home!

Where is your favorite place to go on vacation with the family?

When we last left off on my recap of our Epic Family Road Trip, we were visiting Metropolis Illinois, home of Super Man. That morning we had visited the Lost River Cave in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Some would consider that a pretty full day of travel but we had one more stop to make that night before we gave in and stopped for the night.

The thing is – it was actually BB’s 5th birthday that day and despite having seen a lot of cool touristy stuff that day, I didn’t want to let the day go by without doing something extra special for her. I had it in my head that we should go to Build-a-Bear to let her pick out a birthday present. But the closest one to us was ever so slightly out of the way in St Louis Missouri.

Hubby agreed that the detour was worth it and we headed to the St Louis Galleria which is coincidentally the home of the original Build-a-Bear Workshop. BB was absolutely in her glory. We’d never purchased anything there before and both kids were SUPER excited. Incidentally, neither child purchased a bear.

BB fell in love with Pinkie Pie from My Little Pony and when MM saw Leonardo from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles there was no going back for him either. They loved the whole process of stuffing their new loved ones and picking out names, etc. Both kids got a little bag to carry their stuffed friends in and then we took the kids out for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.

The drive into St Louis was a little crazy as we hit the town at rush hour and it was crazy packed, but we got a peek at the St Louis Arch and I snapped a picture as we drove by. The ride back into Illinois was much quieter when we left that night and eventually pulled over and found a hotel to stay the night. The next morning we had a fairly short and uneventful ride home.

And that’s the final recap of our road trip! We had such an amazing trip with a lot of memories that I know we’ll treasure forever.

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