Summer Camping

Decisions about Fall scheduling seems to be making its way into our our lives these days. We have been deciding on extra-curricular activities, picking up school supplies and talking about what is in store for each of us this Fall. Dave and I learned early as parents that back to school was one of the hardest seasons for us to face as a family. It is hard because we love the lazy days of summer, we love the activities of the season, we love travelling (even if it isn't very far)and we love being together as a family. That makes transition away from all of these things very hard. Our kids have been wired in such a way that they don't want to let go of any of it. Their tendency has been to hang on for dear life and to remember every and any ugly thing they can think of or dream up of regarding school. They do this to try to convince us that they ought to stay home on a permanent basis. So a few years ago we decided to have a celebration of summer. The evening involved a slide show on a big screen, going out for a favourite meal and a sharing time of how God was good to us during this season. We also talked of how God would be with us as we went forward. This freed them up to be excited about seeing their friends, being with their teachers, learning new things, being in routine. It worked incredibly well. On our first ever trial of this we also initiated our family nights once a week so that the kids would know we were committed to them all year. Our time together would just look different.
In light of all of this coming up I have been looking over some of our camping highlights and wanted to share a few with you. (As you can see, the dog also enjoyed our holidays considerably!)