It's official!!!

Rob and I are going camping for our anniversary. Not what you all thought this message would be about, huh? Some of you thought, "Gasp! She's pregnant!" or "Gasp!! Rob got a job!" No on both of those! But camping it is!

We had loosely talked about going camping for our anniversary, but nothing had been set in stone. We could not decide on where to go until yesterday. We were driving back from Southbury and were talking. I asked the dogs if they would want to go next week to Ohio to see Grandpa and Grandma Schumaker since they got back from Arizona just a couple weeks ago. *My in-laws are "snow birds" and spend the winters out at our house in Tucson with my sister-in-law. They came home in late April this year.* After I said "Go to Ohio..." Rob asked me if I would want to go camping with his parents for next week and I said sure! So he called up his parents to see what their take was on it. His dad said that he would not mind, but Rob would have to convince his mom to go. Rob's mom gets on the line and Rob asked about camping and at first she didn't know, but a little bit of talking and she was on board. She asked about the dates and we said next week, but then the more I thought about it, the more I thought that a couple weeks away would be better. This would give Rob and I some time to pick up the little stuff that we are still looking for, like crank/battery powered LED lanterns, dog ropes and stuff like that.

By the time we got off the phone with his mom, the dates were decided to go camping over the week of our third wedding anniversary, which is in two weeks. Not what most people would probably do, but hey...who said anniversaries have to be about candle-lit dinners at some quiet little corner frilly restaurant? Ok...now that I just wrote....I may be eating my words for years to come...but every couple really has their own way in celebrating. So this year I will spend it with my inlaws out at some camp site in Ohio that is an hour from their house. We will be camping during the week so that it is not so busy. The guy said he was going to charge us the Spring rates!! Sweet!! Anything to save just a little bit of money. In addition to that...our camp sites are right next to each other and right along the river!! Pretty cool huh??

So with Camp Sites reserved, now I need to work on a menu. I figure since I am a picky eater...I would help my mother-in-law with the food for the couple of days that we will be camping. I know she will appreciate this. Then we can make a list of food that we will need. His mom told me that there are a couple little grocery stores near by and so we will drive to the camp sites, get set up and then she and I will go over and pick up the food for the couple of days.

I am very excited. I have not been camping in years and I am sure we will all walk away with stories to tell for years to come.

Cabela's = A Man's Disney World

A Cabela's store has been defined to me by a close friend as a "Man's Disney World". Now sit and ponder this...for those of you who have been to a Cabela's store...do you agree with this friend's description?? I mean Cabela's has anything and everything that a man would need for camping, hunting, fishing or any other outdoor activity. Cabela's even has clothing for both men and women as well.

I have now been to a Cabela's store four times. Yes it is a very large and cool store. If though you do not need anything then one would think that this is just a big store full of outdoor sporting good items in addition to clothing for the whole family. Today though, the trip to Cabela's was different. We went up to the store with a list and an agenda.

Rob and I have talked about going tent camping and starting making a list of supplies that we would need. A close friend told me about a huge camping sale that Cabela's was having which started today. I quickly went to the website to see if I could view the sale ad online and sure enough, I was able to look at everything and even print out the ad for even further detail looking. When Rob and I started making our supply list of what we would need for us to go camping we realized that we didn't own sleeping bags. At first we laughed at the thought and said, "Surely we have sleeping bags at the Connecticut house!" Rob went and looked and found that we did not have bags. I figured mine would have been left at my mom's house back in Oregon as the last time I went camping was close to five years ago with my old church group in Oregon. Sleeping bags were on sale at Cabela's in addition to lots of other items. We figured we should have some type of small burner or grill so that we could heat water in the morning for coffee or hot tea. So that went on the list as well.

After spending about an hour at the store, we walked away with two sleeping bags and a new little Coleman grill which has a one burner to heat a kettle in the morning or evening for coffee. I was very pleased with what we got. The one stove that we were actually looking for was actually sold out and so we had to upgrade. We had looked at another 2 burner stove but figured that we would get the one that had a small grill so that if we would go to a camp site that does not have a grill then we have a small one with us.

Now that we are home, and the tents set up in the backyard for airing out, I am ready to go camping. Yes I have not been camping in years...but I think it will be fun to just get away. Even though most camp sites these days offer free wireless, I will be leaving my computer at home. Camping is about getting away and going back to the simple life. I guess I will have to blog about camping in the future.