Tenting en famille

Well the good news is we survived, including my sanity and we had an awesome time. A few good lessons learned about camping in Alberta in late August, the top three being: 1. You can never bring enough blankets, 2. Bring toque's to wear while sleeping as 40% of your body heat escapes from your head, and 3. You get a REALLY close shave when your legs have goosebumps. I don't think I was ever warm the entire week, especially so at night. My mother-in-law, bless her, brought three wonderful quilts which kept us much more comfortable the last night we were there.

We camped with Allan's older brother Lyle, his girlfriend and his two children. I am just getting to know Leiha and we have so much in common. I have been really missing his ex-wife who left him for another guy and it is nice to see the healing Lyle and his kids have done... and get to know the new 'Mom' in their life.

We were also blessed with the descending of most of Allan's entire clan (four of his five siblings, their entire families and his parents) upon our campsite the last night we were at the lake. Allan and Lyle had started that ball rolling with Allan asking his parents and Lyle asking their two sisters to come out. This was no easy feat as we needed a cell phone booster and the caller to hold the phone in just the right direction to get the right cell tower, but before we knew it everyone knew and all coordinated their schedules to come out. It was wonderful to see the few who didn't make it to our home in early August for Papa's (Allan's Dad) birthday celebration, he turned 77 this year.

But it was a great time despite the weather, it didn't rain but it wasn't overly warm either. The kids had a blast with their cousins and were rarely grumpy which is no mean feat with lack of sleep and being so busy.

We almost have all of our "camp stuff" now, with few gaps. This year we added a new camp stove, new sleeping bags for three of us six, and a new air mattress that doesn't work against us in trying to stay on-board... the last one we slid off constantly. Next year we only need to invest in a new tent to accomodate the two oldest who are growing SO much and we will be set. Mental note: tent in June or July only unless we are going to BC or south and don't forget good scrubby pads to clean the cast iron fry pan.