Backyard Campout

In case you somehow missed it, I'm no outdoor girl.  There has been one time in my life that I can recall sleeping in the woods in a tent, and I use the term "sleeping" very loosely.  It was during a sisterhood retreat in college and about 1/2 of my sorority drove back to our apartments in Denton around midnight.  You know I was in that group that drove back home.  I will say, though, that I spent several nights in my dad's deer lease as a young girl.  And I can specifically recall being directed to pee on a tree in the woods.  I think we can all agree that peeing on a tree should definitely be included in the camping category.  So at least I have that on my list of roughing it activities.

Now I can add one more to that list because this weekend we had our own little family backyard camp out.  And y'all, it was my idea. 

I'll pause for dramatic effect.

Not only was it my idea, but I totally helped James put the tent up, which was a huge feat in itself if you ask me.  Putting the tent up was a little overwhelming, so we decided to forgo that rain cover thing...I know, I'm so technical with my camping terminology...luckily our camp out was on Friday night which was the night before the giant hail storm of 2011, so we didn't need that rain cover anyway.  Not that it would've done much good to protect us from the ginormous hail that rained down on Richardson and scraped TONS of paint off of my french doors.  I'm not bitter, though.

The kids loved running around in the tent once it was up.  They were so excited...

James grilled hot dogs, and we decided to eat them in the tent since they loved it so much in there...

After our hot dogs, we made s'mores, which Hunter had been so excited about, but in the end he wasn't a fan of the melted marshmallow...

James and the kids stayed in the tent all night.  I made it until 10, but to my defense, I was sick.  I had left work early that day, and then gone to lecture at UNT, which killed me...I was so feverish and achy when I got home.  Luckily the advil helped me push through our night.  Also, I'm a priss.  There, I said it.  I have no shame, people. 

On top of being prissy, I'm a worrying mother, so I was up a lot during the night worrying that someone would sneak in the back yard and hurt my family, so I ended up going out there at 6 am to hang in the tent for a little while. 

We really did have a great time, so maybe we'll make it a fall family tradition.  And maybe next year I can sleep in the tent all night...or at least a couple of hours longer:)