When your kids come to you and ask to go camping you know you've raised them well. When they ask to camp in January you realize you might have raised them too well. But what are you going to do? Say, "No?" Pfft. Of course not. You say, "YES!"
So it was when my girls (14 and 12) decided they wanted to go camping in January. Unfortunately, I had to work so they were on their own. As adventurous as I'd like them to be, I'm not ready to send them off into the woods by themselves. Lucky for us we have woods in the backyard so they could have an adventure without me.
And since I wasn't too involved they set up our old tent on the zip line platform. It was a tight fit, but they're short and made it work. When it got dark they lit it up with LuminAID inflatable lanterns (Amazon affiliate link) set to purple. In the darkness it was easy to see the tent glowing 15 feet up in the trees.
I was pretty sure one or both would come in before morning, but they stayed out all night. And that's even though it was raining, the old tent was leaking (no surprise after 19 years), the wind was blowing, and to hear them tell it there were wild beasts roaming the woods below them. (I'm pretty sure it was the dog.)
No, it wasn't winter camping on Mount Rainier, but it was winter camping. My job here is done.
