The Marshmallow Trip

As most of you know, Rusty and I are into the camping thing. And, although he and I have had a few trips out in the wilderness, Ella has never been on an official camping trip, in a tent. Well, this summer's weather has been less than desirable, but finally at the end of June it was warm enough to set up camp! If you recall, last year we found the perfect camping spot, out in the middle of nowhere, along the shore of the Platte River, which is where we headed this weekend. We arrive, start unloading all of our stuff, and there are dogs chained up about a hundred yards away barking their heads off. We decide that this was last thing we wanted to listen to all day and night, not to mention the fact that I was already unsure how Ella would adapt to sleeping outside. So, we repacked up and left.

Off we went to seek out a different "perfect camping spot", and another, and another, and another. And so this went for the next 4 hours. UGH! It was awful. We didn't want to go to a campground. and all the places on the map that had little tents to signify "camping" simply did not exist. It was exhausting and trying on all 3 of us. But, I must say, the best sport of all was Miss Ella Bella. She was a trooper. I kept promising her that we would roast marshmallows, but I don't think she was totally convinced. Finally, after hours of unsuccessful attempts, it was either go home or go back to "our spot". So, being that I was not going to allow this day to be a total bust, we headed back to our original campsite.

We step out of the car, I hand Ella the entire bag of marshmallows, tell her to eat as many as she wants, and we start walking towards the spot. As Little Missy saunters nonchalantly down towards the river, chomping on marshmallows, she stops and says, "Oh. Here again." Classic Ella moment right there. That was, by far, the funniest thing we heard all weekend. Probably a "had to be there" moment, but just so appropriate and such perfect timing. Leave it to the 3 year-old. Cracks me up just thinking about it!

We set up camp and built a fire. Rusty made his amazingly awesome fajitas. We roasted marshmallows. Got rained on. Twice. Played in the river. Ella passed out from sheer exhaustion. And, Rusty and I watched the fireflies illuminate all around us as darkness fell. I had never seen so many fireflies in all my life. Just so peaceful and serene. A perfect camping trip.

Funny thing. The dogs were pretty quiet almost the entire time we were there. Ironic, isn't it?