Camping with the Cosmes: Notes from the overplanned mother.

Well, the Cosmes have now officially been camping. Woah. Actually, it's not all that exciting or stellar news, but it merits a blog post as it is hard to get my husband out of the house to do anything, let alone something he LIKES. That may, in fact, be quite extraordinary.

So we went to Tully Lake in Royalston for two nights. Not far away or overly adventurous, strategically planned so there would not be an excess of whining from either my husband or any of the three kids. Easy drive, site close to parking lot so there wasn't a lot of dragging stuff in, bathrooms nearby, meals planned, pretty nice.

And then we get home and I'm hit with the realization that I have spent weeks planning something so simple it is gone in two days, and I've barely noticed when it's passed.

Sure, we had a lovely time kayaking around the lake, and sleeping in our cozy tents. Grilling outside on the fire was a big hit for Francisco, who channeled life in the Dominican down by the river. But does it need to be so hard?

I'm thinking the answer is no. I am giving up the plan-plan-plan for quick vacations to make everyone happy. My goal for whatever next trip we go on (and if you know me you can pretty much expect it will happen any day now) is to just GO. Throw some clothes in a bag and worry about what happens when we get there. Enough packing, list-making, meal-planning crap. I don't care who has fun or who is missing their underwear, I seem to be draining all of my energy over planning and then can barely get it together to enjoy our trip.

The highlight of our two day camping adventure was Francisco's joyful expression as he set the platter of perfectly cooked chicken wings in front of us all and gleefully announced "Now THAT'S how you do some grill!" I think maybe that quote alone made my weekend.

So quote me on this people: my next vacation goal is to be agenda-free and see what happens. I have the feeling that might work better for me next time, although it has great potential to backfire and bite me in the ass (picture two kids with no socks and cold wet feet crying out in hunger in the middle of the night from our half-prepared tent). Well, we'll just have to see how it goes.