Well, That Wasn’t Very Smart

The fam went camping earlier this week up in the mountains. We had a wonderful time hiking, sitting by the fire, playing games while it rained, eating S’MORES . . . yummy! I, of course, had a few Dumbass moments . . .

First off, I checked the weather before we packed and noticed it was supposed to be 68 with a 30% chance of rain each day. Here, that means it’ll be 68, partly cloudy, and at some point during the day, either sprinkles or a down pour or hail. It was also supposed to get down to 35-40 degrees at night. No problem! I just made sure the kids brought pants, long underwear, warm pajamas, a couple hoodies, a rain jacket, and another jacket. They were toasty warm and dry the whole time - and they didn’t have to wear clothes that smelled like campfire every day.

Me, not so smart. I forgot to pack a single pair of pants! That wasn’t the biggest deal . . . I’m a pretty warm person. But, I also forgot to grab my fleece sweatshirts and my jacket on the way out. That meant that I had one hoodie and one rain jacket. Anyone who’s been by a campfire knows that one hoodie is not enough for 3 nights of campfires! But, it was the only one I had, so I wore it every night at every fire. Not only did my sweatshirt smell like a campfire, it had mustard, tomato soup, and melted chocolate spilled on it. I don’t think it will EVER come clean!

My next dumbass move? Hubby and I were cooking hamburgers on a grate over the fire. Hubby accidentally dropped one of the burgers between the slats in the grate right into the fire! He was trying to get it out of the fire with a spatula, and it’s not going very well. I’m thinking he doesn’t want to reach into the fire to get it, so I will. So, I flip up the grate and grab the burger while Hubby yells “Be careful!” I’m thinking he’s all worried about me burning myself . . . turns out, he’s worried about the other 3 burgers that I flipped off the grate onto the ground when I went to save burger #4 from the depths of our campfire. We quickly grabbed all the burgers, brushed them off, and threw them back on the grate - the kids were busy playing, and what they didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them.

And for my final move? Dude and I had gone to the Ranger’s office to turn in his Junior Ranger workbook and get his badge. We decided to clean the crap out of the Jeep while we were there . . . Dude grabbed the garbage and I grabbed some empty water bottles. Dude and I were chatting while we threw the stuff in the trash and recycle bins - and then I realized that I had an empty water bottle in my hand - where my Jeep keys used to be. Yup, I dropped my keys in the recycle bin!!! I started laughing and Dude was like “what?” I told him what I did as we walked into the Ranger station to get some help. Being oh so helpful, Dude says “Now THAT was funny!” Ahhhhh - gotta love him The Ranger and I did manage to lift the bear-proof top off of the recycle bin so I could fish my keys out . . . not so sure I could have done it myself - it was HEAVY!

On a different note, Princess was playing around with a girl from a neighboring campsite. They decided to finally sit down and relax by the fire for a while, when Lauren crossed her legs on the chair, sending the chair toppling over backward in very slow motion. She BARELY hit her head on the seat of our picnic table. I went over to help her up and check out her melon - all looked great and she wasn’t crying. A minute later, I glance over there and see blood running down her neck! I’m thinking she ripped one of her earrings out of her newly pierced ear or something since I hadn’t seen anything on her head. Nope - the blood came all the way from the back of her head! And there was A LOT of it . . . you all know how heads bleed. So I walked her to her campsite and her Dad and I investigated her melon . . . nice gash that required 2-3 stitches. I saw Dad leave in the truck with Lauren to head to the nearest Urgent Care about 15 miles away. But wait! Lauren isn’t IN the truck - I see her riding her bike around the campground about 10  minutes later. Dad came back about 30 minutes later with SUPER GLUE! He went to the nearest gas station and got some Super Glue to glue her head together!!! Now I know they use glue at the hospital and stuff . . . but I’m pretty sure they would have cleaned the head wound of a child who had been camping without a shower for 3 days before gluing her head together.

So, there you have it. My dumbass moves and the dumbass move of the dad in the campsite next to ours.

Coming up . . . GOOD stories of our first camping trip of the year