As most of you know, we started camping this summer. What was supposed to be one trip, turned into every chance we got. We made friends with the camp host and his family. We met some of the locals that go often and their children. The host has a child (at least one) on the spectrum, so we never feel like we are imposing or that the children are misunderstood. We have turned into the campsite that all the kids play at. We bring our two, but we end up with at least three, more often five. We feed them sometimes. We play. It is sort of like a big family. So, when we had SS's birthday, that is what she wanted to do, go camping. So, we packed up the car with camping gear and presents and headed out.
We were blessed to get our normal spot, seeing as we got up there late. We got set up, but after the day we had had trying to get everything together, we were not in the best of moods. We set up the tent and promptly set around the fire to brood. Yeah, it was that kind of day. We made dinner with Weird Tree and set ourselves to bed. (Camping on a full moon was not our BEST idea.)
Friday we hiked all over kingdom come. We were all off the beaten track. We found sites for the local Native American tribe that were not on the protected site. We saw things I cannot begin to describe. It was just beautiful. I managed to get exactly three pictures before I ended up in the water, iPod first. Weird tree tried to help me up, but as he was holding his hand out, I was flipping over, further into the water, to get my iPod out and in his dry hands. It was touch and go for awhile, but my iPod survived after a thorough shaking and a night in a bag of saltines. Some of the locals we know came in with their daughter for the weekend. We had our typical ritual of hot dogs, grilled cheese, and s'mores for dinner and actually headed to bed early. The 5 hour hike was just a lot.
We got up this morning and it was finally SS's birthday. We dealt with all of the questions about when and time, but we finally couldn't hold it off any longer. We let her open her presents. Now, we got her things that served dual purposes. She got gifts that were fun, but also ones that the OT recommended her to have. The star gift was a Nerf Heartbreaker Crossbow. Yes, we did. Not five minutes after this thing is out of it's wrapper and I have shot it, all the kids come on over. We now have our two, the host's three, and the local's little girl. Guess what? It was that little girl's birthday too.
Now, the host has a son who is absolutely adorable. He is friendly and outgoing and just every inch boy. He is 6 years old. Now, what do you think happens when the NT girl, who is turning 6 today, and the ASD girl, who turned 9, like the same boy? Yeah, that happened. Unfortunately for the local girl, my daughter had an awesome crossbow. My daughter won, but it was not pretty.
Little girls can be mean. There is more than just words when little girls are competing over boys, even at that age. There is cutting tones, body language, and of course, who is the cooler girl. The local girl's parents had not yet shown her that she had any presents brought to camp, so she was already having trouble dealing. My girl won this time, but it was a huge reality check. I was not ready to see my daughter cat fight over a boy. I really wasn't. However, I am the mom that will let you try and work it out. We let them all go congregate at the host's site while we finished packing. When they headed back to go to the local girls' site, we reigned ours in and went swimming. On our way out, the host felt the need to inform us that our daughter and his son had "a thing" going on. Yeah, I didn't need to know that.
We tried to go swimming, but the temperature just didn't reach a tolerable level to brave the high mountain water. We tried though. Puck actually went in because SS said it was her birthday and that is what she wanted. I stood at the top, dry, and egged her on. Let's be honest, I was the only one who had been in the water the whole trip, someone had to suffer with me.
All in all, we had a great time. I was very sad to leave for the last time this year. I cannot wait until next year. We did get the host's cell number since our kids get on so well, so hopefully the year won't feel so long. I hope it doesn't. It's our place of peace and the winter is just not going to be the same without it.
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