Camping, we're going camping, I love the trees... I love the grass... wait a minute, why is it so much work before we even leave? And so much money?!

You all must be wondering why it's been so long for me to write something, right? (Maybe not, I need to get more readers, huh? HA-HA).
So, two things...
1. I'm getting quite close to my 100th post (didn't realize it was supposed to be scary until Rachael wrote about hers...).
2. I've been busy putting together camping stuff for our trip!

This last week I've been quite busy putting together all this stuff for our camping trip starting this Thursday. A three night and four day trip up north where we're going to be "ruffing" it (I'll come back to this...) and canoeing for hours.

"Ruffing" it sounded scary and challenging and I was ready to take the challenge, until my friend Missy told me that there would be electricity and that she was bringing a microwave to 'cook' food like "Easy Mac 'n' Cheese"! A MICROWAVE!?! Wait a minute, what happened to cooking on the fire and in the coals and using a dutch oven and other exciting things?

I had decided (before I found out about all this electricity stuff) that I would research online to find out what I should pack, and plan a menu, and get all the required camping items together, either bought or borrowed. I was pretty lucky, too, and found many friends and family with all the items that are too expensive to just buy for one trip.

I also found some really yummy sounding desserts like a hot banana cream pie: place a sliced banana on a square of tin foil and pile stuff on top like marshmallows, a spoon of peanut butter, a few chocolate chips, or whatever's around, and then wrap it up and stick in on coals for a few minutes. Sounds awesome, huh?

I then decided to continue my research and figure out a practical menu (without having to cheat and use the microwave). So, we decided to get as much produce from our family farmers as we can (hopefully some corn, tomatoes, and whatever else is still in season...) and then have shish-kabobs. We then bought stuff for PBJ's, grilled cheese, burgers, hot dogs, baked potatoes (yum!), and other stuff. I'm super excited! Oh, and did you know that block ice keeps longer than ice cubes? Not me, but I'll be using block ice on this trip! (Hey, Jason, Missy, and Jimmy didn't know that either, so it's okay it you didn't, too!)

Some things I didn't even think about taking or packing until talking to more experienced campers, like my boss.
-take individual tea-like packets of coffee for the morning
-bring a small cooler to place inside the canoe to keep things cold for 3 or 4 hours (and make sure to take a bungee cord to tie around it in case we tip!)
-take large body size trash bags to double as ponchos just in case it rains
-prepare food items as much as possible and place in double Ziploc's so no water can get through and so there's less preparation to be done in the wild!

As a daughter of a "pack-everything-but-the-kitchen-sink-but-bring-that-too" mom, I decided I better research on packing items and what clothes I should bring. Will it be super hot? Rain? Snow? Will the night's be freezing? So, after figuring out the weather, it may rain on Thursday, but be nice and sunny and on the cold side at night. But then again, how many times are weather people wrong, huh? So, I'll have to bring clothes to layer with, just in case. That's one of the only things I really remember about one of my teacher's in high school. "Layer, Layer, Layer" she'd say before we left for Senior Survival, the annual week trip senior's took into the wild and slept under man made plastic bag tents and learned that grasshopper's on your tongue were not only a guaranteed picture in the yearbook, but also a great source of protein!

I also learned, during my camping research online, that there are many ways to keep warm at night, including going to the bathroom. Apparently, your body uses up heat to keep your urine warm, so by going to the bathroom, your body can then even out the heat! Interesting! Now, I wonder who brought the bed pan!

Wish us luck!