It had been a long time since I've gone camping. In order to remedy that Em and I packed up our family to go to the Hundred Acre Wood (Em's Gran's property of about 40 acres). She has a pretty nice campsite up the hill in a stand of tall pines. I went a few times as a boy scout and remembered it was decent site with soft needles to lay on and plenty of room to set up camp. That was years ago.
I've wanted to go back for a while, but hesitated, not knowing in what state to find it. My wonderful wife and I dared to re-blaze the trail. We were pleasantly surprised to find the trail well intact. That gave us hope for the campsite. But we found our way impeded by the accursed three leafed villain. The main entrance to the camp was a blanket of the oil secreting weed. We had to loop around to the back side and found a little haven of solitude that had escaped the clutches of you-know-what. The fire ring was overgrown so I relocated the rocks while Em dug a new pit.
I was worried that the kids would wander into patches of green and the contract patches of red. But we all managed to escape that fate. We all stayed around the fire. Bee was a fantastic firewood gatherer and tosser-inner. J did his best to be just like his big sis. He was good at listening which was a relief from how he is at home. Not that he's a terror, but he enjoys getting reactions.
Mollie did great, too. We let her off her leash for the first bit just to see how she'd do. She stayed around and came back when we called her. But we decided to play it safe and take little steps (since we're still working on the recall command). She enjoyed the smells, tried to get the fireflies, and slept soundly under the stars.
It was good to get out in nature and enjoy it with my wife, kids, and dog.