I have a childhood memory of waking up in the middle of the night (a dark and stormy night!) and the (canvas) tent was FULL of water. My dad was outside digging a trench around the tent trying to reroute this flow of water. My mom was telling us not to move, to stay on our air mattresses and my brother was trying to get out and splash around. The thing that stood out to me about this was that our dad worked in water in CA and on/with all the canals that carry water all over CA…so as a kid I was thinking…”ok, this is what my dad does when he goes to work, he digs trenches and now we were getting to see him at work.” I told him about this years later and he laughed, but said it was a pretty serious situation. They were close to putting all of us in the car and driving away.

I have a particular memory about camping with my kids, and looking for my boys (8 & 9 yrs old at the time) at a campground in Banff, Canada. I found them sitting on the ground in a little grove of quiet trees, cross legged, heads together, deep in conversation about something. There was something old and wise about those two little boys having what looked like a serious meeting to decide the fate of the known world!

With my two sons, I find that at their age, they don’t care that we were hiking to a mountaintop with great views or two miles into the woods to see a spectacular waterfall. They were more interested in the things they saw along the way. Just as with a long car ride, they will ask, “Are we there yet?”

I try to keep them from thinking about being tired long before they become tired. I addition to taking frequent breaks to rest and drink water, I would usually point out unusual looking rocks or trees along a trail and make up some story. Their imagination and curiosity usually takes over and keeps their mind off the fact that their little legs are getting tired. And before they realize how much time and miles have pasted, we arrive at our destination.