On a whim for a new summer experience, John suggested we take the kids camping. We headed west to Shelburne Falls where John had gone fishing in the past. We were in luck as they had only two camping spots left for that weekend. The down side was that these two camping spots were the farthest from the bathrooms and showers. We either had to walk the half mile or drive. In order to prevent non-campers from entering the area, a rope hung across the driveway. Every time you wanted to come or go, someone had to move the rope. Micah took this job on proudly the whole weekend.
John worked hard on packing quintessential camping foods... hotdogs, s'mores and sandwiches. We took in brunch one day which was a treat.
All 5 of us could not fit into one tent. So we divided up into a boy's tent and girl's tent. The kids never complained about how they slept (sleeping bags on air mattresses). John and I, on the other hand, slept on the ground with just sleeping bags. None of us were ready for the sun to be up bright and early at 5:30am every morning.
A surprise the first morning was taking the kids tubing down the Deerfield River. They let water our of the dam in the late morning/mid-afternoon which raises the level of water enough for kayaking, rafting, tubing and jumping off of rock formations. We rented two double inner tubes and one single. Victoria rode with me and Micah rode with John. Because we rented these, no rope was available to tie them together. None of us thought that would be a major problem. However, Izzy got tangled in a tree that recently fell along the shore and started to get separated from us. Panic set in as she tried to get untangled as the four of us kept floating downstream. She managed to get loose but at the cost of a pretty big scratch on her arm from one of the branches. I then tied her tube to my life vest given a long string for adjustments to the vest. When we hit a few rapids, Victoria and I bumped around a rock. Because we were tied to Izzy, we drug her inner tube over the rock causing her to fall out. Good thing the water is not too deep as I could stand and hold the inner tube until we were all able to get back in and finish our adventure. Izzy has since dubbed this summer as "the summer I almost died!".... fitting for my theatrical child.
After rafting we explored the Berkshire Ski Resort. Our last adventure for this camping trip was taking a ride down the Thunderbolt Mountain Coaster. This is a combination of a roller coaster and alpine slide. Each cart is equipped with its own braking system allowing for us to choose how fast we wanted to take this course. After talking to her about Izzy's personality (she would like to go fast but won't say so because she's nervous, she said Izzy didn't really have a choice. They were going to go down fast whether or not she wanted to. I guess that is what you get when you ask for someone to go with you who's done it multiple times. After all was said and done, Izzy loved it (as I knew she would). The kids had such a great time they are now asking for a bigger tent for Christmas so we can do it again. Maybe by Christmas John will have recuperated enough to want to do it again...ha!
