Adventures

Everything to me these days is about adventure and challenging the kids and myself and teaching them something....a couple of things I have been very appreciative for lately and noticing is this:  It is a SUCH A BLESSING for us that John works shift work.  He gets to spend so much more time with us!  He is home much more often than most daddies.   Most dad's (8-5 working dads) have two days off during the week...one day would most likely have to be to do things like mow the grass, fix the toilet, etc and the other day would most likely be a family day of going to church, resting, etc.  Because John has either 4 days off or 6 days off in a row, we are much more likely to take off...we like to go...we like to try new things...we like to drag the kids along with us for the most part...

John and I figure that we have these 3 kids and if we don't teach them to camp or hike or canoe or swim or bike or whatever it is that we like to do, then they won't learn and it will be a nuisance to try to teach them later....when they finally get old enough and then they won't want to learn or won't do it the way that we want them too at least :)  ...Now we have certainly had some busts like when we took John Daniel tent camping in March when he was only 5 months old...it was sooo cold and miserable (probably one of the worst nights of my life) but its fun to laugh about it now and John and I are so stubborn that even after the worst night of our life where we got up at 4:30 am and drove an hour to Gainesville to sit at a Denny's in our Pajamas (kids had no shoes on..we looked homeless) just to get warm...we still went back after getting warm and rented a canoe and paddled down the Sante Fe river for 3 hours instead of packing up and coming home...

Camping has certainly made us try new things.  People ask us how we camp with three young kids and I just say GO!  Yes, giving a baby a bath in a campground shower is a pain but we have tried it every way possible....and its cheap!  Its how we get to travel sometimes...because it doesn't cost very much.  Training the kids when they are young to act they way they should act on a trail or in a camper or in a canoe is important to us....as I've said before, don't dare complain about it in front of John.....the kids know not to complain about bugs or the heat or walking and for the most part they do just fine....We have some great memories!  Hey, my kids have hiked on the AT and I think that is so cool!  One of my favorite personality traits of my husband is that he isn't aftraid to try anything almost....(like my dad)...he got into a lot of trouble in his young years and has scars to prove it but I like his free spirit and that he will jump off a rope swing and hike down to a waterfall or pick up a snake and that he drags the rest of us with him...its awesome for the kids!!!  I truly think hat they are better for it!  And now, every adventure is like a glorified field trip where we can learn about the world around us and experience it hands on!