My Strawberry Nightmare

Kathleen and James innocently setting up our tent

I love camping and I am so glad that I married a chap who likes it just as much as I do. However, nights are never as good as the days. This proved to be the case on this camping adventure as well. Mason just recently learned to throw himself in and out of his pack n' play, so we had no other choice but to wait till we were all ready to sleep (way past his bedtime) and then lock us inside while he excitedly ran himself ragged and then past out at our feet (that was fun. Especially since he took on the personality of a friendly Helen Keller and felt blindly in the dark for our faces and then bestowed kisses galore in the midst of his playing).

Besides our enigizer bunny taking forever to go to sleep, the first night wasn't that bad. I didn't get too cold (which NEVER happens when camping) and it wasn't even too uncomfortable for me on the bumpy ground. All night long I heard animals outside of our tent and worried for my brave sister, Kathleen, who opted to sleep out under the stars by herself.

I wish you could see the look on Mason's face! He sure was pleased with himself!

The next evening, after a fun day of playing in the water, I took little Mason up to our tent to get changed for the evening. As a well trained girl scout, I removed my shoes before entering our tent. On the way out, I stood barefoot for a moment getting everything in place. And that is when it happened. I saw at my feet a dead MOUSE!!!!! It was right at the front entrance of our tent, halfway into the safety of his hole. One of us happy campers must have stepped on him without knowing it! SO GROSS!!!!!

Some of you may know that rodents are SO freaky and nasty to me. Few things in this world bother me like they do. Send me a snake or spider anyday. Just please, never a rodent. I am even so extreme in my phobia that from time to time I have odd rodent nightmares. At any rate, if you can imagine, this was very disturbing for me. VERY DISTURBING!!!! The thought of sleeping at the crime scene put me in the worst mood as the night wore on.

Mason knows who to catch a thrilling shot. I think the fingers in the frame add to the mystique.

When it was time for bed, James checked and rechecked out tent to make sure it was rodent free, got rid of the dead mouse, and tucked me safely in bed. All the while James told me reasureing things about how random that mouse was and how safe we were in our tent. I started to relax and we turned out our lights. Within seconds, we heard a great amount of scurrying RIGHT outside of our tent! As time wore on, the scampering only increased and it sounded like an army of rodents were marching around our tent. Then they got closer and closer until I could feel them moving around UNDERNEATH ME!!! I thought I was just going crazy, so I turned on the flashlight to set my mind at ease. Unfortunatly, I was not crazy. I was under attack. I could see them sneaking around under our tent! That was when I reduced myself to tears and decided to sleep in the truck.

I woke James up to told him that we were sleeping on some sort of mouse hive and that I was leaving and taking Mason with me so he decided to investigate the situation further by peering around outside our tent (he is brave). When he came back inside, he sheepishly told me that had indeed set our tent on a mouse colony and offered to move the whole tent to a mouse free location. After that, and a nice warm cup of hot chocolate to calm the nerves, we tried sleep again and this time were both successful.

The next morning we packed and cleaned, as our camping had come to an end. All the while, we could see mice running nearby into their holes but I wasn't too bothered. It was daylight and I was safe and sound with shoes on. As we drove the hour ride home I thought about how glad I was to be leaving the weirdo mice and returning to the safety of our home. However, just as we pulled into our driveway and I opened my door to climb out, a MOUSE appeared from nowhere right at my FEET and jumped out of the car! AUGHHHH!!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!!!! Here I was, thinking I was safe while I had a mouse eyeing my feet!

One of our gross meals. Basically raw meat. I opted for hot chocolate.