Boy its been a long time since we went camping.

Today was our pack everything up and get ready to go day. (I forget that I have two blogs...we are going to camp near Mt. St Helens for a few days...well actually we are staying in yurts, but its close enough.) D went to the garage to look for our camping cook set (that used to belong to his Grandpa so it is like a family heirloom! I seriously think its at least 50 years old, but maybe only 40.) Unfortunately he was unable to find it, so I had to brave the potential horrors of our garage (think squirrels, spiders, and the ghosts of food storage past.) Luckily I found the cook set within a few minutes. It was still packed in a box from when we moved here along with other handy camping items like our hatchet, some tarps and etc.
Hmmm...we have lived here for almost four years...so when WAS the last time we went camping? Well, its true there have been a couple of Father/Son campouts, and we have a yearly tradition of doing indoor camping every January where we set up a tent in our living room and convert our house into the great outdoors, but a real camping trip? (I count yurts as camping even if some people don't.) WOW...it has been about 5 years. #4 was just a baby last time we went, so of course he doesn't remember it at all, and #5 has never done anything fun in his life (as far as a vacation). He has never been camping outside of our living room (D missed the last couple of Father/Son campouts and before that he was too young to go) and he has also never stayed in a hotel. This should be an interesting trip for him if he can get over his fear of the lava (see my other blog for more details).
Its not that we haven't had vacation time. D gets a couple of weeks every year, but it seems like we have always had some kind of a project going on (like rewiring the whole house or remodeling the bathroom) or we were visiting family. Once we passed the four kid mark taking a vacation suddenly became much more expensive as well, because we have not found a hotel that would let all of us stay together, and most of the places that have adjoining rooms or family suites are out of our price range. There are other reasons that we have not gone on a vacation. I hadn't really thought about it before, but we haven't gone on a real vacation since Autism became a part of our daily lives (of course it was part of our lives before that, we just didn't know it yet). I am not sure if its because I am often afraid of taking the boys anywhere public, or if I just don't have the energy for the planning and stress of keeping everything together on a vacation. Either way I have managed to avoid it for the last five years.
I had big plans for renting a dumpster and cleaning out the garage on this vacation. But D wanted to do the camping thing. He was nice enough to compromise and let me set us up in yurts rather than a tent. This will be our first real vacation in a long time. I will let you know how it goes if I survive!

PS I think I have figured out how I will post for my Wordless Wednesday from the road. We will just have to see if it works or not...see you all in a few days! Wish me sanity and the ability to keep my boys calm!