Camping

This is our favorite time of the year to go camping as a family. The air is cool and brisk making a nice campfire warm and cozy at night. We decided Misha must experience this part of our fall family activities...


...but our weekends are packed full until his surgery on October 21st. Our solution was to just set up the tents in our front yard. Since we live out in the country and are surrounded by woods and wildlife, we thought the adventure would be fun yet, close to all the conveniences of home, should we need to retreat. We all dressed warmly and filled the tents with warm blankets and a few air cushions for those of us with bad backs. The boys slept in the middle tent which is the largest, and the girls where in a tent on one side and Philip and I in another tent on the other side of the boys.

After we were all snuggled in someone started saying goodnight to everybody the "Walton" way. After a few minutes Misha chimmed in saying, "Goodnight dad, goodnight mom, goodnight crazy Stephanie, goodnight Maggie (our dog), goodnight Cindy (our chicken), goodnight bearded chicken (our rooster)." We all giggled listening to his sweet but very thick Russian accent. He really loves making us laugh. I went to sleep that night feeling so content and happy.

Misha enjoyed our camping adventure so much that he's dragging us all back out there again tonight. As I sit here typing I can hear the fun I'm missing. My back is sure to be sore tommorrow, but I'd be a fool to trade this experience for all the soft warm comforts of my bed.

Goodnight everybody!