This past weekend, we went camping in Plymouth, MA with 6 unschooling families we had mostly never met. We know Jean! But we got to meet 4 other amazing families, including Kim, all with kids all about 10 and under. We went on Friday afternoon and left Sunday morning. Such a quick trip! It was NOT enough time for the kids. They did NOT want to leave. Hopefully next year we can stay for the full time. Milo wanted to live there and Skylar was enjoying his friends so much! Lots of unschoolers live in parts of the country where there aren’t any, or very few, other unschoolers, so when these kids get together they really live it up!
Friday night we had some big thunderstorms, all night long. Milo was very scared and wanted nothing to do with sleeping in the tent. In the rain, TJ and I moved everything from the back of the Suburban to the front seats and put the kids full sized air mattress in the back. That’s where Milo, Phoenix and I slept. I slept for about 2 hours that night. I’m not sure why I was feeling so anxious, but I was. It is very unlike me to lay awake all night. It left me mostly in a nice fog for Saturday. Meeting new people soooo tired has it’s downside. I can’t remember about half of the names of the people I met! I have a hard time meeting new people anyway, so it definitely made it a little more difficult for me.
Campfires and swimming and sand and marshmallows and campfires and games and laughing and playing and campfires! The kids had a blast! It is a wonderful sound to hear children playing and enjoying themselves. It is wonderful to watch parents so respectful and mindful. These were truly happy and busy children. They loved almost every moment they were all there. (I think the storm has a few of them scared… so not a bright spot in the trip) Milo and Phoenix and I slept in the Suburban the second night as well. Milo didn’t like the tent and for some weird reason everytime I brought Phoenix into it he would burst into tears. I was ok with that since I’m not much of a tent kind of gal either.
I also learned that I am an excellent and efficient “campsite taker downer”. Tj took all three boys to the lake and I tore down and packed up the campsite in just over an hour. I’ll admit, that the diet coke and the Emergen-C kicked my ass into high gear. (We didn’t want to pay for the extra day) Hopefully I didn’t scare Jean away with my “efficiency”! I had actually really needed that hour to obsessively clean. I enjoy cleaning, and I do get obsessive about it! Not in a bad way… just in a I clean a lot way.
fun! we'll be going on our unschooling camping trip in october at Zion.
milo's new haircut looks very cute btw.
~Tara
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It was a great time! The lightening sucked though. I am glad that there is another happy cleaning person out there. I really like to clean as well. I probably used to border very mild ocd, but I have gotten better. They say a clean house and car is the sign of a sick mind. I guess I can't really disagree, :>) see you in August. And I, too, am adding you to my blog roll. Be well!
oh and the kids watched Skylar's "fail" video like 10 times. True fans!
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Very glad to see you had a good time despite the rain. Thanks for sharing some pictures, as I was feeling bad about not going. See you soon,
A
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I grew up just north of Plymouth – what an awesome place to camp! Sounds like a great weekend
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:: Campfires and swimming and sand and marshmallows and campfires and games and laughing and playing and campfires! ::
Such a good way to sum it up!
You didn't scare me. I was in awe of your organization. Drew an I have been camping since we were dating and we cannot come close to that kind of obsessi…I mean, organization!
Glad you guys were there!
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Looks like you had a great time! I stumbled over here from FrogCreek. I'm enjoying reading through your blog…
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FB killed your blog? What?! Well, I'm glad as I had tired of everyone leaving their blogs for FaceSuck. I love that cleaning thing. What I mean is – I love watching it in others – I'm working hard to get it myself and it is becoming bigger as i get older.
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I, too, was feeling the lack of my favorite bloggers who all got sucked into the rabbit hole. I'm glad you've found your way out, and I eagerly look forward to your blogging and commentary
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Heather, I agree with you about the blogs being a different, more thoughtful way to connect. It even feels like a community with the Google Followers thing.
It's ironic because the reason I went to check out Facebook was because Jeff said he was shutting his blog down to be there. There's only so much talking you can do in small snippets, though.
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I'm a more introspective type. I've always kept a journal and like to write. But the more posting I did on facebook the less writing I was doing.
I LOVE facebook. So much fun and so easy to keep in touch with others… I'm just changing how I'm using it. So I can keep one of my passions.
I also found it hard to share pictures on both my blog and facebook. It's sooo time consuming all that uploading.
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