June 24: Birthday campout

"I love camping. I hate camping. I can't seem to stop. In case you haven't noticed, campouts hardly ever go the way you want them to go. It doesn't matter if you're glamping or backpacking, on a guided exploration or alone. Chaos finds a way." 

— Dan White (Under the Stars: How America Fell in Love with Camping)

Nic asked for a campout in the garden for her birthday! Awesome idea! They set up the tents, someone brought a fire pit, and we hauled out the camping chairs, bought smore ingredients and pizza. It was totally awesome, but as usual, not all always goes according to plan...so, of course, at 4 am there was a HUGE downpour that flooded them all out, and they all came scuttling inside, to camp out where ever they could find! Nevertheless, by all accounts it was tremendous fun, filled with memories of friends each going their own way in the next few months, beginning new chapters of their lives after high school. I am once again grateful that we are living in a place in the world where this is still safe and possible.