The night didn’t start out that way. It started with excitement, anticipation, and dreams of outdoor adventures. The girls have been begging to do a backyard campout for a while, but between schedules and weather, it hasn’t happened. We got a family backpacking tent a few years ago and have yet to take it on its maiden overnight adventure.

With the nursery closed on Mondays over the summer and the girls insisting that they wanted to camp out, we picked a Sunday that seemed like it had a good chance of being dry, and we went for it.

Once the girls knew it was a go, the preparations began. They ran around the house collecting various items that they deemed “essential” for surviving a night in the backyard. They stuffed backpacks with the following items: pencils, pens, notebooks, dolls, a step counter, and lanterns. Then Abby starts looking for medicinal items like Band-Aids and Neosporin. First aid is important, and I always have a little kit when we go out in the woods, but it seemed a little excessive for 25 steps out the back door. At this point, I’m starting to get nervous about what adventures they had planned.

So, in addition to their stuffed backpacks, we got the appropriate sleeping gear, made some s’mores (inside, unfortunately, because a rain shower dampened our fire pit) and headed for a night in the outdoors.

It was rough.

Hot and humid, without a hint of a breeze, expect for our own hot breath in the tent. Somewhere in the middle of the night, I was praying that the girls would give up and say, “Let’s finish the night inside.” Apparently, they were thinking the same thing about me and hoping that I would fold. Neither of us wanted to disappoint the other by giving up.

We toughed it out and made it through the night. Somewhere before dawn, the temperature dropped a little and it became manageably comfortable. We woke just as the sun was peeking up, and Maddy, with a level of energy that only she can bring to the early morning, immediately led us on a lantern-light adventure around the backyard to check for animal prints and other nocturnal goings-on.

At this point, the girls aren’t going to ask me to do a backyard campout again, at least not in the summertime. I promised them that when we backpack in the mountains, it will be much more comfortable and the reward of stepping outside your tent to a majestic mountain sunrise is hard to beat. I think they believe me.

But before we get to pumpkin-spice everything and the excitement of fall gardening, we’ve got to make it through August. See our Teaching Thursday post for some August Garden Tasks that you can do this month. I think I’m going to put a few of them off a little because I’m still recovering from one hot, miserable night. One that the girls and I will never forget.