Random Wednesday: Camping is 'Da Bomb!

The camping part is further down for your enjoyment. Anyway, sorry if this image is blurry, but what do you see when you look at it? Apparently a four-year-old sees a bomb. 

Not to keep you in suspense, it's the sticker on our water heater in the garage. I pass by this thing every day without the slightest thought. In fact, I don't think I could have said for sure whether there even was a sticker on our water heater before yesterday. 


But my son has been telling me about the bomb in our house for weeks. It would come up randomly, like on our way to preschool he'd say, "Mom, a bad guy snuck into our house and gave us a bomb," and I didn't know WHAT to make of this puzzling bit of information. 


Or in the middle of brushing his teeth at bedtime he'd stop and say, "But we don't have to have a bomb in our house. Let's take it outside." Okayyy, I'd think, and I'd say, "Sure buddy, we'll take it outside first thing tomorrow." 


This kind of comment happened all the time, but never exactly when I had a second to get to the bottom of it, and honestly, my kids talk about such random things that I figured he'd seen something on T.V. and become fixated. Then yesterday (realizing it was like the monster-in-the-closet), I asked him to show me exactly where this bomb was. Mommy would get rid of it! Mommy was here to save the day!!! So he took me to the garage and showed me the water heater. Nice. I explained, and Dad showed him pipes, but I believe he remains unconvinced. 

The Camping Part:

Since it's Random Wednesday, and in case anyone wants cutesy camping stories from last weekend's beach camping adventure, here's an excerpt from the family website so I don't have to reinvent the wheel (my comments are in bold):

[Begins with thanking the other family for inviting us, and how inept I expect us to be at camping]. The kids LOVE the ocean, so their fun was guaranteed. Of course, I naturally forgot something kind of crucial: the kids' beach stuff. On a BEACH campout. And in hundred-degree weather. No worries, they jumped into the sea in their clothes! [Our friends had extra towels and sand toys, organized family that they are].

The beach was both sandy and rocky, and the kids had fun gathering and building weird things with the rocks. We roasted hot dogs over the campfire for lunch, then the kids went on playing. The baby did his usual sand-eating ritual [And rolled around in the dirt. You can check out his filthy feet HERE].

For dinner we had take-out Chinese from down the street, [we are not hardcore campers, peeps] then the kids played with their glow necklaces and flashlights, made S'mores and got ready for bed. It felt great sitting by the warm fire, all cozy with friends as the waves pounded a few feet away and the kids slept in tents nearby. I stayed up really late reading a great book, all snuggled in a blanket with a headstrap flashlight (anyone surprised?). [This was actually The Maze Runner and I finished it in one sitting. Riveting, I loved it].

The next day the kids had fruit, coffee cake, potato chips and whatever else they could scavenge for breakfast, then they played with bubble wands while the grown-ups packed up camp. The baby kept asking everyone if he could "splash", and eventually he decided to run into the ocean without us. Thankfully big sister grabbed him, and I carried off his writhing, ferocious body back to camp. He tried again, and by that time he had given everyone the lovely souvenir of bursted eardrums. No one could stop his screeching screams except good ol' Nino, who put him up on his shoulders. They had a nice time exploring trees, much to everyone's relief. [Then we finished packing up and went home. Good times!]