Camping with the Family

I spent most of my childhood years camping as part of our annual family summer vacations. We went regularly with another family and most of my memories are great memories, or at least good enough that I want my own family to experience camping the way I did growing up. It wasn't just the fun of camping that was great for the family, we had our share of camping disasters too that years later remain bonding moments for those of us involved. I could fill pages and pages, in fact, with mishaps and funny stories from growing up camping, but I'll save those stories for another time.


It was with the fun times and great memories from years past that I approached last weekend. We went on our first camping trip as a family, and had with us great friends and their six kids. Counting our four kids, we were a party of four adults and ten children. Immediately, you're thinking: "You're crazy!" You'd be right, but I'm too close to the situation to think that clearly! My goal was for the kids to experience some of the fun that I had as a kid and break outside of our Carmel Bubble, as we call it.

We headed north to the Indiana Dunes on Friday evening after work and in hindsight it was too far and too late because we ended up setting camp late into the evening and in the dark. We woke up early in the morning to rain drops falling on our tent. "That's a bummer," I thought, but I didn't think much else until the rain began to increase and fall harder and faster. I tried to calm any anxiety in my tent by explaining that rain is just part of camping. A little water wasn't going to kill us, in fact it could end up being a little fun! The rain paused for a little bit, long enough to make some breakfast, and after cleaning up we decided to head to the lake (Michigan) and check out the beach we had heard so much about.


We arrived at the beach just in time for the rain to really start coming down. That didn't stop the kids from having fun and even jumping in for a swim in the rain. We hung out in the rain on the beach for an hour or so and headed back to camp soaked, head to toe.

We got back to camp with the rain still coming down and no end in sight according to the forecast. Flood Warnings had hit the area and we began talking about whether or not we should try and stick it out. It got worse when we went into our tent to find one of the boys had left one of the windows open and we now had water in the tent and wet sleeping bags to deal with. My optimistic, 'rain is just part of camping' attitude was giving way to frustration and disappointment. This isn't how our first camping trip was supposed to go!

All of a sudden, from outside our tent, we heard a cracking sound and then a loud thud/crash. I unzipped the door to the tent to see a tree branch had fallen on our friends' tent. I panicked at first, thinking they were inside, but as I moved closer I saw my friend standing outside and he said "Glad no one was in there!" The tree branch fell right through the top of the tent leaving a big hole that pretty much ruined the tent. That made the decision easy, we started to pack up and left the Dunes less than 18 hours after we arrived. Not much of a camping trip but, definitely a bonding experience for the family and friends. We left the campground with our clothes and gear soaking wet, bug bites over our entire bodies, and a collection of funny memories we'll share for a lifetime as our first camping experience.
The kids were definitely good for a few funny quotes:


"OMG! This is SO GROSS!" - Makela, while hand washing dishes. What a princess!


"Can we have some modern food?" - Caleb's criticism of our menu selection and cooking


"When are we going home?" - Kyron, 2 hours after arriving at the camp site.


"You're just going to leave me here to die!?" - Kyron's reaction after tucking him in for the night and before returning to the adults around the camp fire.


"Indiana bugs are meaner than Oregon bugs." - Ryon, after the local mosquitos and insects discovered Hawaiians taste better than Hoosiers

Not your typical Sports role model

I've been a sports fan my entire life.  I've grown up admiring sports figures and I am raising kids who are following firm in my footsteps.  As fans, we're drawn to the superstars that hit big shots or the perennial all-star with historical career stats.  We dream of being able to do the super human feats our sports icons are able to do, but most of the time have a difficult time relating to a professional athlete because their world seems so much different than our own.  We rarely have any idea what kind of person they really are, what their real character is and even if we should be admiring these people.  I try and remind my kids that in most cases we can admire their athletic talent, but we should be careful about trying to mimic everything about our professional sports heroes. They too, after all, are flawed people.   So are the officials and umpires, but in the chaos that ensued at the end of the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians baseball game last night a different kind of role model showed himself.

Umpire Jim Joyce made a huge blunder that cost Armando Galarraga, a pitcher for the Tigers, a perfect game, one of the most elusive feats in baseball.  Joyce called a runner safe on a play that he was clearly out and every replay angle confirmed that Joyce missed the call.  So all the talk on the radio this morning and into the afternoon centered around instant replay's role in baseball, and I can understand that being everyone's concern.  For me, however, the real surprise  and point of discussion around the evening's event came in how Joyce handled himself after the game.  Joyce acknowledged his mistake, acknowledged the impact it had on the game and Galarraga, apologized for his error, and accepted responsibility for his mistake.  He didn't just do this with his peers, but he went directly to Gallarraga and then to the media with humility and acceptance of his accountability to his actions.


It is an awesome example for others and especially for my kids.  It's been great fodder for conversations tonight about trying your best and accepting responsibilities for the results, good and bad.  It's hard to be willing to be held accountable for failures, but Joyce showed the courage and humility that it takes.  As a result, it could be argued that people have a lot more respect and higher regard for him today than they did before he screwed up baseball history.  We all make mistakes in our job and as we watched in amazement as Joyce made possibly the biggest of his career, many of us were sympathetic to his situation.  The professionalism he demonstrated and his character and integrity that has shown through in the past 24 hours have given evidence that there are more than just athletes to look up to in professional sports.