Sometimes I feel bad for my younger kids. Instead of the "fresh-I-have-energy-and-everything-is-so-exciting-mommy", they get me in my "tired-I've-already-done-that-a-million-times" state and they miss out on things we never would have missed with the older kids.
Take the ward camp-out for example. Every fall for an entire decade, we went without fail. We let the kids play until late, roast s'mores, guzzle hot chocolate, camp on the hard ground, and then we'd go home the next morning filthy, achy, exhausted, and sugar-high and would have 5 loads of laundry to do in addition to still having a whole Saturday's worth of activities to attend. But the kids loved it and looked forward to it all year, so we did it.
Fast forward a few years to an older, tireder version of Glen and Lara, who despite still having the best of intentions seem to find those road-blocks a little harder to tackle these days .
Like when the traffic was really bad on the way to the camp-out last year, instead of persevering for the sake of the kids, we decided that it was just easier to turn around and go home rather than fight our way through rush hour. The kids were only slightly appeased by Glen's gesture of setting up the tent and camping with them in the backyard.
This year was supposed to be much better.
But once again, life got in the way. First Cami found out that she was running in a race early Saturday morning, which meant that one of us needed to stay home with her. Then Glen had a crazy day at work and couldn't get off early to take them like he'd intended. So it fell to me to take the kids up there.
Too bad my poor sense of direction got the better of me and despite having been to the park a million times before, I randomly got very lost and could not find the campsite. After 20+ minutes of driving around in the quickly approaching dusk, my dread for finding a spot for our tent in the first place, let alone setting up the tent in the dark, was increasing by the second.
Then when, already completely flustered at being lost, we did eventually did find our group, I was annoyed to find that there were no parking spots anywhere nearby. It was at that moment I unilaterally declared that we would only stay for a few hours and definitely would not be spending the night.
The kids were initially pretty disappointed not to sleep over, but after playing hard in a 3-hour long pyro/friends/sugar fest, I think they were about as ready to head home as I was.
And as a side bonus, sleeping in my own bed meant I actually stayed awake through General Conference the next day.
uh....make that mostly awake.
*********************
Take the ward camp-out for example. Every fall for an entire decade, we went without fail. We let the kids play until late, roast s'mores, guzzle hot chocolate, camp on the hard ground, and then we'd go home the next morning filthy, achy, exhausted, and sugar-high and would have 5 loads of laundry to do in addition to still having a whole Saturday's worth of activities to attend. But the kids loved it and looked forward to it all year, so we did it.
Fast forward a few years to an older, tireder version of Glen and Lara, who despite still having the best of intentions seem to find those road-blocks a little harder to tackle these days .
Like when the traffic was really bad on the way to the camp-out last year, instead of persevering for the sake of the kids, we decided that it was just easier to turn around and go home rather than fight our way through rush hour. The kids were only slightly appeased by Glen's gesture of setting up the tent and camping with them in the backyard.
This year was supposed to be much better.
But once again, life got in the way. First Cami found out that she was running in a race early Saturday morning, which meant that one of us needed to stay home with her. Then Glen had a crazy day at work and couldn't get off early to take them like he'd intended. So it fell to me to take the kids up there.
Too bad my poor sense of direction got the better of me and despite having been to the park a million times before, I randomly got very lost and could not find the campsite. After 20+ minutes of driving around in the quickly approaching dusk, my dread for finding a spot for our tent in the first place, let alone setting up the tent in the dark, was increasing by the second.
Then when, already completely flustered at being lost, we did eventually did find our group, I was annoyed to find that there were no parking spots anywhere nearby. It was at that moment I unilaterally declared that we would only stay for a few hours and definitely would not be spending the night.
The kids were initially pretty disappointed not to sleep over, but after playing hard in a 3-hour long pyro/friends/sugar fest, I think they were about as ready to head home as I was.
uh....make that mostly awake.
*********************
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