2019

We have trudged into the new year. It has been cold, wet, and blustery. I have scarcely been outside- though I did twice walk back down our trails in the woods yesterday, to check out the expanded trail Sam has been working on.

While Tommy was here last week, I was discussing how, between the time Tommy was a few days shy of his first birthday, and the time he was twelve or so, we had not been camping at all. My reasons for boycotting camping for so long were entirely selfish, I realized last week. I had spent that entire trip either cooking, preparing to cook, or cleaning up from cooking for Tom and I and the five kids. When I wasn't in the middle of food work, I was chasing a toddling baby and fishing debris out of his mouth. Rocks, bottle caps, metal pull tabs from cans- the kind that had a 'tongue and ring' that detached entirely from old steel and early aluminum cans-, trash from nasty people who just totally ruin campsites... or chasing a three and a five year old who wanted to go find Daddy and the older brothers fishing down by the water. It was not fun.
Our family outings began to be more "day hikes". We lived about 30 miles from The Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. The day hikes were usually packing up a lunch, and driving to the refuge. I would stay in a picnic area and chase the three youngest away from the water, while Tom and the older boys got to go boulder hopping and climb up the mountain trails. (I only ONCE ever got to climb up any of the mountains without a child... and had to do that by myself.)

Sometimes, we would ALL go hiking down an easier trail.
For those of you who have not hiked with very young children, it was viewed pretty much as a death march. They were not keen on a long drive, followed by a long walk through some trees. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then another long, long drive home... which takes even longer when the parents keep pulling over to see such ordinary things as buffalo, elk, and longhorn cattle.
Our kids were tormented at least twice a month by these drives, up until we moved within a couple of miles of the Refuge. Then, we were there pretty much at least once a week.

By the time the twins were born, we were a good hour away from the Refuge, and the visits there all but stopped. The twins were about seven or eight before they ever got to camp anyplace other than our own yard. (As we all know- the fearless duo began camping out alone at four years old in our yard! Next thing we knew, they were off on the Appalachian Trail!)