We have camped my entire life, everything from late night trips to the outhouse to spending day after day trying to find the "perfect" stick to take home as a souvenir. To this day, my parents still have three hunter green sleeping bags, one for each of us kids. The zippers may be broken, the pattern of geese that lined the inside well faded, but they still have them.
Camping is an institution in my family. So much so that we actually celebrated Morgan's first birthday while on a camping trip. We have taken Morgan into the woods since before she could walk, trying to instill in her both a love and respect for nature. Each year, we plan a trip with my family; a few days of bacon over cast iron, a few nights under the stars.
Although the trips are never long enough, they are always monumental. We may fight, we may laugh, but we will ALWAYS end the trip with epic memories to share around the next campfire. Just ask my mom about the time she almost got gored by a buffalo or the time a seagull pooped on both my dad and my sister at Old Faithful...on the same day.
I should not have been surprised with Morgan's birthday card for my mom this year. When I asked Morgan to draw a picture, this is what she put together: "Mom, can you see? It's me and Grandma camping in her trailer in the nighttime!" In that moment, I knew. Camping is already just as much a part of Morgan's life as it is mine. It's not what we do, it's who we are.
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