Life At The Circus

Since going to training camp last year , my oldest has been scheming and planning exactly where he would stand to try and get Ben Roethlisberger’s autograph.  My parents got him Ben’s jersey when he was a baby.  Ben was our rookie quarterback when our son was a newborn and he has proudly worn his #7 jersey for the past 11 years.  And more than anything, he wanted him to sign his jersey.  Since our training camp experience didn’t go exactly as we planned , we no longer had a game plan for the autograph.  We knew that after practice the players would walk off the field towards the locker room and if they chose, they would sign autographs.  So, at first we headed off towards the path they’d walk, with his hand made sign and jersey in hand.  We talked to some of the training camp volunteers/employees and they said that it was family day at training camp which meant it was the day the players family came to watch them play and visit with the players. ...

Lest anyone think our life is some picture perfect world where everyone always gets along and the sun is always shining… It isn’t. We had some moments like this. And truthfully our vacation didn’t start at all like I had planned.  We were supposed to leave early on Friday and drive to Latrobe to see the Steelers Friday Night Lights practice.  One practice per training camp the Steelers play a scrimmage practice under the lights at the local high school.  We went last year and had planned to go this year.  My oldest has been planning since last year the exact spot he was going to stand in order to maximize his chance of getting Ben’s autograph.  I busted my butt all morning on Friday to get everything packed and ready for training camp, camping, and my Mom’s 60th Birthday party.  Around noon on Friday I called to check in on our van which had been in the shop since Wednesday night and was supposed to be ready…  it wasn’t ready!  Ack!  I a...

We woke up Monday morning and one of the kids asked, “What the plan for today?” Our response: “Nothing” We figured we’d end up at the pool at some point that day but other than that, we had nothing on our agenda.  Some of the kids were better at self entertaining than others, but they all ended up enjoying themselves.  We ended up with a fabulous camp site.  We were close to the bathrooms and the water spicket.  I have no idea how this happened, but we had NO MOSQUITOS!  And the weather was perfect. We backed up to woods.  We didn’t buy any wood at all.  And we had countless camp fires.  The kids could run in the woods and collect wood while Mom and Dad sat in their chairs and watched.    We found a beautiful stream near  the pool.  On Tuesday we skipped the pool and spent the afternoon at the stream.  I spent some time like this.   For Real… Ice Coffee. Shade. Hammock.  Book. Stream....

Most of the time we use camping as a cheap way sleep on vacations.  We have the goal of visiting every National Park and the way we approach it is by spending pretty much every ounce of our time exploring the park. Most days we usually end  watching a sunset, and often the best spot for viewing the sunset is not from our campsite, which gets us to our camp site in time to set up camp in the dark.  We sleep, wake up, make a quick breakfast, tear down camp and set off to see more sights.  We love it!  We have so many wonderful memories of places we’ve experienced and explored this way. But, it isn’t the typical drive up to your site, set up camp and settle down for a few days.  That is an entirely different style of camping.  That style of camping involves bringing lots more gear, and making more elaborate meals (than say oatmeal in a jet boil and Subway for lunch).  We have our sights set on another elaborate National Park vacation for 2016, ...