Camping on Mars, 2016

Last fall I knew that this summer would be busy. Like SUPER busy. You know, since we are having a baby and all. But, I also knew that squeezing every last drop of summer out of Minnesota is what we do. I couldn’t slight our family those opportunities, and so I went to the task of creating our summer schedule.

Even with a newborn, we decided camping was still in the cards. I tried to find locations that were close to home so that in the event anything happened we’d be able to get the baby home, or get to hospital, depending on which side of delivery each trip happened.

For our first trip we scheduled a visit to William O’brien state park. I scheduled it for the 15^th, so just a week before Collin’s birthday. We knew that we would be gone for his birthday, so this was a way to celebrate a little early. We haven’t really gone camping this early in the year before though. I didn’t think much of it since this year its been unseasonably warm in May (hello global warming), so I figured it would be warm. Boy were we in for a surprise.

As it got closer to the weekend I kept an eye on the weather and watched the temperature estimates drop and drop. By the time we got to Friday we were expecting highs in the upper 50’s during the day and lows in the frost high twenties during the night. Frost. For real.

We packed up and headed out, bringing along extra blankets for sitting near the campfire. I didn’t even think to pack gloves and hats though. It was just 80 degrees a few days before, so it seemed like gloves and hats were out of the question.

We arrived, set up the camper and no sooner had we set it all up, that the chill set in. Drew took a ride on his bike and found that it was far too cold to let the boys go for a ride without gloves, hats and coats, and so we were holed up in the camper. Being 9 months pregnant, I wasn’t planning to be exactly adventurous this trip, but I had hoped to hike and see some of the wild flowers.

And then the camper became my own small weekend container. We holed up and played Yahtzee, worked on coloring books and read books. I wasn’t just waiting for the cold to resolve, we were also awaiting baby Eden, and so since there wasn’t much to do, I took to reading the Martian.

It turned out, the Martian was strangely fitting. The story is about a man stuck on Mars after being abandoned (unintentionally) by his team and what follows is his attempt to survive in the HAB, a Mars-like tent designed for habitation and here I was stuck in a camper, figuring out how our life would change in a few weeks as we prepared to welcome baby Eden. The camper became a cozy spot mostly because it had heat and that night as we fell asleep, warm and cozy, it began to rain and then the rain turned to freezing rain, and then we realized Saturday would be yet another far-too-cold to do much adventure. Since I was very very pregnant, I decided warm and cozy was the best spot for me to finish the Martian and Drew took the boys out for a hike along the river.

And so, that’s about how the first trip went- from the inside of the camper looking out. We did manage to sit around the fire for a bit and get in the most important part- s’mores, and the boys did find a few flowers and animals on their hike with Drew, so it certainly wasn’t a bust, but also wasn’t exactly what we  imagined our first camping trip of the year!