Thursday, April 03, 2008

And the adventure begins...

I don't remember if I've mentioned that we are going on a camping trip this weekend to Dinosaur Valley State Park. We have spent weeks getting all the essentials together, you know, buying sleeping bags and lanterns, borrowing a cookstove, making sure we have proper utensils to stab and incinerate marshmallows! This will be our first camping trip since kids have been in the picture and I can tell you already, there is SO MUCH CRAP TO THINK OF! Am I packing enough food and water, do I have some things for them to do, will they be warm enough (temps are supposed to get into the mid-40's at night), do they have little water shoes to go wading in the creek (after all that's where the best dino prints are), do we have enough beer to keep us sane?!? So I am excited and worried and stressed all at the same time! I'm sure once we get the car all packed and I know all this stuff will actually fit into my car, I'll be fine. But for today, I will be in the kitchen prepping food. All of my fellow campers (this is a group camping event with my homeschooler group) tell me I need to be packing Pop-Tarts and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the whole trip. This just goes against every fiber of my being. Just because I'm camping and out in nature does not mean I can't enjoy a decent meal with my family for 3 days! So I have my menu planned as such:

Eggs and sausage for breakfast Sat. and Sun.
Grilled pork tenderloin and potato salad for dinner one night
Brats and potato salad the next night
Lunches consisting of chicken tortellini pesto salad for one day
Chicken salad with apples, grapes and cilantro for the next day
Healthy snacks of fruit and homemade pumpkin bread
Fresh loaf of pumpernickel to have along with dinners and breakfast

Yes, I admit it, I am a TOTAL food snob! And I refuse to pump my kids full of processed, boxed foods all weekend. All my other friends think I'm loony, but how many do you think will end up at my campsite wondering what smells so good?!? I will have a full report and hopefully some photos to post on Monday. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

2 comments:

Sean Wright said...

I surprised Ginny is not going with you :)

Ginny said...

Yeah me too. Where was my invite hmm?
We had the weekend free and wanted to camp but we couldn't find reservations anywhere because I didn't plan in advanced. I've been busy! Go see my blog...I've got a new post up.

Hope your camping is wonderful...want to see lots of pics when you return. :)