pop 'til you drop

 I grew up camping in a pop up tent trailer and that pop up trailer holds within its not-so-sturdy walls some very sweet memories.  So it was with great joy and anticipation that we set off last weekend with our own little pop-up to start creating memories of our own.

The packing up and leaving was pretty stress free (we had "strategerized" in hopes for this beforehand) and the set up was even better.  And then set in the long, long afternoon with me and Justin and two children.  Around the time I had sprayed on another glorious application of bug spray over the dirt and grime that was already accumulating, put on another band-aid, refereed another argument, and made yet another suggestion as to what the heck the girls could do to fill the time before them : "We're camping!  This (gesticulating wildly) is what you do!!"...somewhere around then Justin quietly asked, "Do you think maybe we're condo kind of people?"  Most everything inside of me screamed, "Yes!  You're just figuring that out now?"  But I wrestled with my inner condo, shower, electricity, television, shower lovin' woman and told her to simmer down, to enjoy the sights and smells of the beautiful Colorado woods and to just give everybody a freaking break as we ease into this thing called camping. 

I am happy to report we rallied big time and went on to enjoy a whole weekend of camping.  We played cards in the camper while it rained, we hiked, read, talked and laughed and we sang songs around the campfire: "God songs" from Lily and full-on patriotic songs from Amelia.  Let me tell you, it's quite the night around the campfire when you go from "Pass it On" to "The Star Spangled Banner."

One of my favorite things about the weekend was telling stories from my childhood days with the pop up trailer.  With all the sights and smells (why do all pop ups smell the same?) so many memories came back to me.  It was sweet to remember things I have not thought of for a long, long time.  It was sweet to know just how much I treasure those memories - all those wonderful camping trips when it was simply just me and my family. And now I'm giving those kinds of memories to two girls who seriously love themselves some pop up trailer camping.

And I didn't even get to the trailer's best feature: the heater. 

We're pop up camping kind of people!