One day last summer I suggested to the Chew children, Anya and Lukas, that it would be really awesome to sleep outside on the trampoline. I didn't think they would go for it, but they LOOOVED the idea. For some reason we were never able to coordinate a date to do it. I forgot about it.
Fact: Children remember everything.
This summer, they constantly reminded me, "Remember when you said we could sleep out on the trampoline - when can we do that?!" So I said, "What the heck!? Let's do it!"
So last night I traveled to the Chews house for our camp out! We started with a "hobo" dinner made up of a mix of potatoes and baby corn and bratwurst ... and some rice and curry! It was very yummy. After dinner we made our way onto the trampoline so we could jump before we built the tent on it. I love trampolining. It's one of my favorite summer activities. One of the games we always play is "popcorn" where I just jump the crap out of them. Their small little bodies go flying! I love it.
After some jumping on the trampoline, which wasn't a lot since it was RIDICULOUSLY hazy, hot and humid, we did what you'd do at a camp out - we made s'mores. They're one of my fav. summer sn
acks. Bok had built a fire in their firepit. So not only did we do the s'more thing, but we also had the "smelling like a campfire" thing going for us. Yum.I have to say that when I went camping with my family the building of the tent was my LEAST favorite thing to do. It usually came with a lot of yelling and arguing about how the tent should go. It was just a pain in the butt that I didn't want to deal with. Going to the creek and catching crawfish was way more exciting than erecting the stupid tent. So when it came time to build the tent on the trampoline, I reluctantly led the pack. It wasn't that big of a tent
, which I was grateful for. We struggled for a few, but finally got it up. We put a gymnastics mat inside the tent for us to sleep on, so that the tent wouldn't shift as much. We set up shop and then headed inside for the "movie" portion of the night.Anya and I watched a bit of Enchanted and Lukas watched some Larry Boy movie. Around 10 pm, it was time to head out to the tent. Now to be honest, I really thought that we would never make it through the night. I was giving us until 2 am before we went back into the house - so I was expecting a "short" night. As we walked to the tent, you could tell that a bit of fear had entered into their minds. But I tried to make it funny as best as I could to dispel their fears by acting like a tour guide for their backyard. We got in the tent and got alllll tucked in. The tent was open on the top, with a net, so you could see up at the sky, which was pretty sweet. You could actually see 2 stars! Heidi said goodnight and left.
About 10 minutes after she left, Anya asked to go back inside to get a drink of water ... and then a book .... and then to see her mom. So she went back in and Lukas and I just chilled. She brought Heidi with her. She was afraid. So Heidi came and read us a story (which was
rather funny I thought!) and tucked us in. She laid next to Anya for a while. After a bit, they both fell asleep and Heidi left us.Now, I don't know if you have ever slept in a tent, but it can get HOTTTT! And we had three sleeping bags, many stuffed animals, plus 3 bodies in this lil tent - not to mention it was incredibly hot and humid outside. I started to roast. So as I laid there, in between Anya and Lukas sweating to death, I was really grateful for this opportunity. It was really precious to spend this time with them in such a fun way. And watching them sleep (sounds creepy - but parents do it all the time) was really sacred. It was super precious and I got excited about the idea of having my own kids one day and doing this with them. Yeah, I think I'd actually do it. :) So as I thanked God, I wondered what time it was .... only 11 pm.
As the children slept, I tried too as well. It was hard - I was used to not falling asleep for hours after I actually got into bed. But I made myself keep my eyes closed in hopes that I would also fall asleep. The night progressed and I think I dozed in and out. Sleeping with kids can be ... hard. Don't know if you've done it, but kids have the ability to find any crevice and or arch in the way your body is shaped and snuggle themselves right up into it. So as I laid on my left, Anya found her way into my back and Lukas snuggled his way up into my front. I was sandwhiched. No where to move and did I mention how hot it was?? I tried to push them over (Heidi said I could), but somehow they always found their way back to my body, like little magnets.
We made it th
rough the whole night until about 5 am. Mother Nature woke us from our sweaty sleep with this annoying bird and thus abruptly ended our night on the trampoline. We stumbled into the house and I dropped down on the couch and was out. Slept until like 8 am-ish and then I had to go. Packed up my bags and drove home.I had a really, really good time and I think they did too. Lukas kept saying, "This is SOOO cool!!" I'm glad we were able to share this with each other. It was fun to camp out too. I miss camping. I hope to do it someday with my husband. Just the two of us :)
So thanks to Anya and Lukas for an awesome night of sleeping out in a tent on the trampoline. We rock!
yay!! it's really cool that the tent opened up so that you could sleep under the stars. the 2 stars...