Camping has been redeemed!

We returned from our wonderful camping/canoeing trip yesterday afternoon - dirty, sweaty, exhausted...and so blessed! The kids did great and really enjoyed themselves. It was so fun to see my son come alive the second night around the fire - enjoying the company of the other kids, roasting marshmallows, listening to the stories, and staying up wayyyyy past bedtime! He is so social!
Dear daughter preferred the solitude of camping and fled the onslaught of bees and mosquitoes for the retreat of the tent. She had brought many (if not ALL) of her ponies and her new bunch of sea creatures and enjoyed the fresheness of the outdoors through the screens of the tent as she was whisked away in her imaginations with the animals. She also had fun playing in the river with her sea creatures - the COLD river I add! She also had moments of real fun with the other kids and got to see a baby catfish and even watched tadpoles moving inside the safety of their eggs. She was on cloud nine!
I would love to share some more spiritual insights gleaned on this trip, but I sense this is one of those times where I just revel in the togetherness of the experience and leave it be at that. (Or maybe it's the tiredness that still lingers, the mountains of laundry still waiting - in spite of the 4 loads I did right away yesterday! - and the fact that my late sleeping children need to get moving and have some breakfast that compels me to end my post. ;))
Blessings!
Ruby