Have you ever been camping?

My husband loved camping. When our kids were growing up, we camped at least once a year. My sons now camp with their own families. I remember our whole family, kids and grandkids, all camping together for a few days in a really beautiful park in Indiana. Our youngest granddaughter was only 2 months old at the time. My sons are both married to very strong women.

I can’t say that I enjoyed camping as much as my husband did, I am more of a hotel girl. But there is a cozy kind of happiness to be found sitting around a campfire together, no distractions or television for entertainment, telling stories and reminiscing. I also enjoyed camping because I didn’t have to do anything. My husband took care of everything. He chopped the wood for the fire, he hung the string lights, he cooked the food, he made sure that I was as comfortable as possible. I enjoyed being treated like a camper princess.

Probably the most important thing I learned during our years of camping is that you must always bring bacon. You do not want to be that poor camper who wakes up in the morning to a cold bowl of cereal while the people next to you are grilling crispy, delicious bacon. No, you definitely want to be the camper with bacon. And everything tastes better when it is cooked outdoors, so that bacon is almost like an other-worldly treat from heaven above.

We have had way too many adventures as a family while camping, and I wouldn’t know where to begin if I wanted to tell of them here, and the story would be too long, but suffice it to say that we were a camping family, a very close-knit family, and we enjoyed our time outdoors in the wild.