By Kelli Bowen
I have this weekend off. That’s a really big deal. For the majority of the year I have weekends off, but when planting comes around, I work as close to constantly as I can. January and February is steady. March is busy. April is hectic. May is madness. June is the light at the end of the tunnel and being able to exhale. I am exhaling this weekend and we are taking the camper out.
Hubby took the girls out Memorial Day weekend, but the dogs and I stayed behind, so I could work. Not this weekend. This weekend is momma’s weekend off! This weekend it’s all-in. Hubby, Me, Miss E, Miss A, and three dogs in a 30-foot camper.
We decided to go to Lake Ashtabula, North of Valley City, where Hubby’s family has some land and we can camp without certain irritants: like neighboring campers. Denali is a one-year old German Shepherd and hasn’t grown into her manners yet. Ain’t nobody wanting to camp next to a barky big dog.
We left home later than we had hoped. We made it out to the spot. Hubby mowed an area for us. We ate burgers without bread because I forgot to get buns. Denali barked a lot.
Hubby’s brother’s family was also camping along with some other children so the girls were ecstatic! Their interaction with other human children has been pretty limited the past couple months.
About dusk Miss A decided to throw in the towel. Shortly after Miss E and Hubby returned from visiting the Brother-in-law and I heard a commotion. I came outside and there were dozens and dozens of lightning bugs floating above the sea of prairie grass. Miss E caught one in her hand. Miss A got dressed and “Wow!”ed and giggled, the dogs weren’t barking, and we had a perfectly perfect moment.
This is what we hope for as a parents: among the crazy, yelling, frustrating, screaming, and crying, we get lucky and get perfectly perfect moments.
Editor's note: Read what it took to get the camper ready for its maiden voyage on Kelli's blog.
Kelli makes her home in rural Cass County with her husband, two daughters (8 and 4), three dogs, and random poultry. She works for a regional seed company by day and tries to be an alright mom, wife, friend and writer by night.