Camping Adventure that will never be forgotten.

I wanted to share a tale with all of you on our camping trip we had last summer, or should I say all the mishaps that happened meaning we should never have gone camping that weekend. As a family we really enjoy camping, but after what happened to us last summer, we will not be camping for a few years or until our oldest is old enough to understand a few things as you will see in the story that follows.

It was July of 2005 and we were preparing for the annual friends and family bash that my husband's parent put on ever year. It is a great way to hang out for the weekend and do some fishing or just relax and enjoy the meal and great company for a weekend. Most everyone stays at his parents place on the lake and camps out for the weekend. There could easily be up to 15 tents in the yard.

We decided to go up the weekend before the party and set up our tent and get a good spot. We chose our spot and thought we had found the most perfect flattest spot in the yard. We were really proud of how the new tent looked in the spot. Only a couple other tents had been set up and there were a couple of campers set up too.

On Thursday night, we received a call stating that the rain had taken its toll on our new tent and that through the night it had collapsed under the weight of the rain on the roof. We were soo upset that this happened, but what we did not realize was this was the first incident of the weekend. We were being told before the weekend even started that this was definitely not the weekend to be camping.

A family member was nice and lent us one of their spare tents. We seemed a little scrunched in the tent, but it would suit us for the weekend, or so we thought. We arrived on Friday and set up the tent and then decided to relax and enjoy the company of those that had already arrived for the weekend.

We had gone to bed late as even more campers arrived after we did and we wanted the chance to chat with others and join in on the Karoke Singing that was going on. We decided that it was quite late and we were tired so we would try and get some rest. To no avail due to all the rain the mosquitoes were out in full force and decided to sue me as their blood bath. I had bites all over and the itching was soo intense, I could not sleep. Around 5 a.m. I had finally decided to go in the house and search for the cupboards for epsom salts to take a bath in. I found some and took a really hot and quiet bath to get rid of all the itching.

By the time the itching siezed, the kids were finally waking up so there was no sleep for me on that night. I got the kids breakfast and as I was feeding the youngest child who was one years old, we hear some commotion going on outside. As we stood up to check out what was going on, we noticed that our 5 year old was being carried in and talked to in a tone that only a mother knows that panic is about to happen.

I went and stood by my daughters side and listened as what happened was explained to me. I was very surprised that my daughter was not crying. She was being very brave for what happened. There was a gash about 2 inches long on her forearm and it was a deep cut. Apparently, one of the dogs that was at the party was had been let out of the house. He had growled at my daughter who is not afraid of dogs and when she went to repremend him for growling at her he bit her. Luckily, he did not continue to bite her more than once.

I went into panic mode and at first was not sure what to do. The wound was cleaned and my husband and I decided that it was a deep enough wound that she needed a trip to the emergency room. They asked us all the normal question on what happened and explained to us that Animal Control was going to be contacted regarding this issue and that is was policy to report any animal bites to them. We gave them all the information that we could and they explained further that the dog would need to be quaranteened for 10 days to make sure that the dog did not have Rabies. The dog was quaranteened for the alloted days and my daughter did not need to go through anything for rabies.

After 9 stitches and filling the prescription for antibiotics we returned to the party. We returned back late enough that we missed breakfast but that was ok, we just wanted the rest of the weekend to go off without anymore things happening.

Saturday dinner was great and for the rest of the day not much happened. My daughter wasn't too upset that she couldn't go swimming with the rest of the kids due to the stitches in her arm. Other than a few other kids getting cuts on their feet from swimming in the lake it ended up being a great rest of the day. The Saturday meal was great and so was the rest of the evening.

After not having sleep for 40 hours, I decided that a few drinks with the rest of the crew that was camping out would not be a bad idea as I truly needed a good nights rest. My husband and I decided that we would retire to bed about 1 a.m. on Sunday which is about 43 hours total of no sleep. The pillow felt good and it didnt matter that it felt a little damp as I drifted off to sleep. There was a slight breeze so we left a little of the door open so that we could get as much air flow through the tent as possible. Our two middle kids were sleeping in the partition next to us and the baby would not lay down without laying between my husband and I, so we let him lay between us as we really needed the sleep.

I was sleeping very hard and I am not sure what had awoken me from such a sound sleep, but something made me realize that our youngest son who was just a year old was not in our tent. It was daylight out and probably around 6 a.m. Panic soared through my still tired and sleeping body as I realized I needed to get up and fast and look for my boy. Thoughts ran through my head and all I could think of is that we would find him face down in the lake. Our air mattress completely took up the space on the side of the tent my husband and I were sleeping on. As I tried to get up to a standing position while half asleep I tripped. As I tripped, I was in such a panic that I continued to run only to realize that I had forgotten to unzip the screen part of the tent so that I could get through it. So now not only am I in tripping motion, I rolled out of the tent. As I tried to pry my eyes open, I stumbeled around as I tried to stand up.

All this time, thoughts of my son in the lake still flooded my brain. I could not think of anything else except for the fact that I needed to find my son as fast as possible so that I could keep him from being drowned in the lake. Oh, I forgot to mention, that I had said "Oh shit, Where's Jacob" as I was rolling and tripping out of this tent. My husband, being the man that he is heard the urgence in my voice and realized that this was not the time to ask questions, but to follow behind me. Yes, he too tripped and rolled out of the tent just as I had. (I am at this point laughing at us both. If you could have seen us trying to wake up in a panic like a parent would in the middle of the night and your eyes just wont open and then stumbling around, that would have been us.)

When I finally got my eyes to open and stay open where my brain could process what I was seeing, there was my son standing there with a fishing pole in hand. Apparently, he decided that he was going to get up and go fishing before the rest of the guys went out. He wanted that big fish the men talk about that is out there. You know the one that keeps growing with every story.

My husband and I ran up to him and breathed in joy that our son had not fallen in the lake in his adventures in fishing. Some of the other kids had left some of the fishing poles on the docs and he wandered out there and found them. We were so very lucky and thanked the angels that were watching over him that we still had our son standing there.

As we looked him over to make sure he was entirely ok, we noticed that the real reason he had come looking for us is that somehow he had gotten the hook from the pole stuck on his clothing. We took the hook off from him and took the pole and then brought him inside so that we could settle our nerves. At this point I wish there had been some left over drinks from the night before as my nerves could have used a shot of something at that particular time.

After breakfast that morning, we packed up our stuff and the tent and decided to head for home. Everything seemed to go well with that too. I guess it was just not our weekend to be camping and we should have known something would go awry when the new tent collapsed.

A couple of days after being home, I noticed that my daughters bite did not look quite well. It had puss coming out of it and it was becoming redder. I took her to the doctors office and they decided that they would give her 2 shots of antibiotics and if that did not work they were going to admit her to the hospital for intraveneous antibiotics. We had to return the next day to see how things were going and the physician decided that the shots of antibiotics were working so she ended up returning for a total of 4 consecutive days of double shots of antibiotics.

A couple of weeks later she had the stitches removed and our weekend of mishaps was finally over. Needless to say, we have not camped again since this happened and we do not plan to camp out again in a tent until our youngest son is old enough to understand that when he wakes up and we are sleeping, that he needs to remain in the tent.