super nature girl strikes again...

So when I said life got back to normal amazingly quickly, did I mention that twelve hours after getting home from my trip to California, I packed up my car with equipment and kids and headed to Whidbey Island to camp with our good friends Josh and Kim, their kids, and their two pugs? Did I mention that I packed up the car with all our camping equipment and our stuff all by myself in about an hour? Did I mention that because he'd spent the first half of the week playing single dad, that Boaz wasn't going to join us until Friday?
Yeah.


I figured that since three adults+six kids+two pugs=2 kids and .666 pugs per adult we'd be fine.

I was feeling all smug and nature girl with myself as we drove behind our friends and the tent trailer they'd borrowed for the trip. We'd sleep in our tent and watch the stars as we lay in our sleeping bags. It'd be a relaxing re-bonding experience with the kids, who were happily sucking on the Sees suckers I'd picked up from the airport.

"Mommy," Tali nudges me from my nature-girl daydream with her mouth covered with butterscotch lollipop. "How come you packed the sukkah?"

Gulp.

I knew that brown nylon bag didn't look right when I packed it. And after I pulled over to double check, I can't believe I missed the big white label, in Hebrew, plainly stating that what I'd packed was in fact our sukkah.

No tent.

I call B from the freeway, who is laughing so hard, I can barely make out the fact that he's asking if we'd brought the bamboo roof. Which, of course we didn't. Because who brings a sukkah with them to camp?

We are already in the ferry line so it's too late to turn back and after handing me a large diet Coke and trying to contain her own hysterical laughter, Kim says that of course there is room for four extra people in their tent trailer. But we'll have to sleep with these guys:

Which is obviously not a great option to offer the kids since

1.) Samuel is allergic to dogs

2.) All three kids are terrified of these cute, but ferocious pugs

3.) Have I mentioned that my kids are terrified of these dogs?

But because our only other option is to sleep in the roofless sukkah, and because Kim promises to keep the puggles in her car, we continue on.

The tent trailer turns out to be the world's best camping invention, despite the fact that it is impossible to steer and it has to be disconnected from the truck and pushed into the camp site. It's spacious and comfortable and it even has it's own cookstove attached to it. And by the time B arrived the next day, it took everything I had not to let him sleep in that tent all by himself while we slumbered on in the almost luxury suite.

But the surprise of the weekend (well, besides the theiving chipmunks who stole Sam I's candle holders in broad daylight!) was that somehow, the kids decided they loved the pugs. Kim offered Tali a dollar a day to walk them and from that moment on, the kids decided they were in love. Even Naomi snuggled up to Izzy. And Samuel experienced nothing even remotely resembling an allergic reaction.

Why do I feel like there's a dog in our near future?