Spring Break Adventure: Backyard Campout

Sunday night was the first of one of the mil10 Spring Break adventures. It was a surprise to EK, but we were planning a backyard camp out. Now, remember that us mil10s are not exactly people of the wilderness. The closest that we ever get to nature is a trip to Atwoods or watching the sunrise on the way to work.

We found an inexpensive tent online at Walmart, but none of the three closest Walmart locations had one in stock. This was a tent that would have held three and allowed all of us to be in the backyard overnight. (EK was actually disappointed to hear that his parents were going to join him. He thought he should do it alone! We told him that was against the law for a child his age to be alone outside all night. He seemed to believe us.) Since no store had a tent that could hold all three of us, and we didn't see the point of buying an $80 tent that would sleep six, we settled for a tent that would hold two. The family event became a guys event. Before the sun went down we went out to set up the tent.

Before going out for the night, EK packed his Nintendo DS and several comic books. mr. mil10 had a cell phone and planned to surf the Internet. Amazingly there was a WiFi signal in the backyard! We were really roughing it!

No camp out would be complete without s'mores. We dropped in the local Brookshire's to buy the necessary items. While checking out two people said, "You must be making s'mores." I guess it was that obvious. Remember, we are not people of the wilderness and since it is probably not safe to build a campfire in the backyard, we cooked our s'mores in the microwave. Who knew marshmallows grew so quickly when subjected to microwave rays? After a few s'mores, we were ready to go out into the great outdoors!

Don't ask me to explain the crazy faces we were making while we were eating our s'mores. I couldn't if I had to. After the snack we were ready to head outdoors. We loaded the tent with sleeping bags, pillows and blankets earlier, so we were ready to go inside. Remember our tent was made to hold two people. I don't know how it would have held two adults, because we nearly had it filled to capacity. Also, anyone taller than mr. mil10 would have had difficulty fitting inside comfortably.

We had a great time and it was definitely better to camp out on a cool night than in the heat! EK is ready to do it again.