I have always hated any form of camping that did not involve a motorhome or a trailer. If it didn’t have a bed, a bathroom, air conditioning, and a refrigerator I wasn’t interested. I have tent camped a couple of times, but the majority of vacationing that we did as a family growing up was in a motorhome. That’s what I got used to and that’s what I got comfortable with.

So, last night I slept out on the trampoline with Luke and Zac. Ann has done it with them before when they have asked to do it, but I had always refused. The reason that I give them is that I can only really sleep on my stomach and that’s not really possible on a trampoline that bows. The real reason is that it would be uncomfortable and I would rather sleep in my nice warm bed.

We got the trampoline all set up as it was getting dark and we climbed in at about 9:30. We looked at the stars (we could see the little dipper and about 7 other stars), talked, and told stories. We had a great time just laying out under the (very few) stars. Then Zac fell asleep and I got to ask Luke a bunch of questions about himself and what is going on in his life. It was a precious time that there are just not enough of while a kid is growing up.

Then Luke started drifting off to sleep so I started trying to get myself comfortable. And I’m not going to lie – the first part of the night was every bit as bad as I thought it would be. I hardly slept because of the bow of the trampoline. Then, when I did finally figure out how to prop a pillow just right – a stupid bird started “singing.” I put singing in quotes because this bird sang kind of like I do – loud and annoying. And he wouldn’t shut up for quite awhile. It wasn’t even light outside yet. Seriously, bird – at least wait until a decent hour before you start shouting. It’s probably a good thing I didn’t have a shotgun handy.

I was able to get a bit of sleep as the morning was coming to an end and we all got up a little bit after 6. Of course, the boys had slept like babies and had a great time. I didn’t sleep like a baby… but it was totally worth it to have that special time with my boys.

Takeaway:

Sometimes something is incredibly uncomfortable and totally worth it. This absolutely falls into that category. I don’t know if I will sleep on the trampoline with them again, but I am totally open to taking them out camping in a tent sometime. They are only young once and that’s my only chance to have these special times with them.