How to Survive in the Wilderness

 Finally, FINALLY, I went camping with Sarah.  Outside.  In an actual tent.  All night, on the hard ground.

I am woman, hear me roar!

This was seriously roughing it: four females, one tent, on a country club soccer field. 

The only light came from the tennis courts.  Oh, and a penguin Flashlight Friend (As Seen On TV!  Only $19.99 plus shipping and handling!).

We had to survive 10 hours under brutally mild conditions, with only one stick to roast our marshmallows and dwindling Hershey's bar provisions.

Let me set the scene for you a bit.  Our foray into wilderness survival began with a family night closing out two weeks of day camp in Belle Meade.  The people who run the camp sent out a standing invitation for any campers and their families to camp on the soccer fields of the country club, nestled between the tennis courts and the pools.  I started getting a little nervous, once I found out we'd be the only moms camping, and only one of six tents out there.  The weather was just spectacular, in spite of many prayers (and possibly a sacrificial animal) for rain on mine and my friend Kathleen's part.  Even though my halfhearted attempts to locate a tent on FB failed, Kathleen came through with a snug 4-person job that fit us quite nicely. 

It felt a little like a game of chicken, seeing which of us would be the first to brave the tears of our daughters and bow out of the challenge, but we saw the whole thing through.  

 Sarah and I performed purely decorative and comic roles during the tent set-up, but we came through with flying colors on the marshmallow-roasting.  My marshmallows resembled charcoal briquettes in taste and consistency, while Sarah hovered so far outside the reach of the flames that her s'mores were positively sushi-grade.

After that, those crazy girls did a little night-swimming while us moms shivered and watched their lips turn blue while they insisted the water felt great!

Finally, it was time to hit the sack.

It turns out that the six-year-olds are pretty hardcore about their beauty sleep.

These two shushed us moms until we stopped chit-chatting.

Night-night.

We made it through the night, with the only major challenges posed by heavy dew and a lot of stairs up to the bathroom.  I don't know if camping will be a regular thing for us in the future, but my girl seemed satisfied with this lite version for now.