You can't sleep with cold feet

I've been camping all of 3 times in the last 3 years. But I've finally figured out that I have some sort of defunct vascular system and my feet are ALWAYS cold when I'm camping. This means I need to invest some energy and possibly money into keeping them warm on the next trip. I never sleep more than 20 minutes at a stretch b/c I assume the kids are freezing too. Stephen will be hot and tossing around, throwing off covers while I am hunched in a fetal position, trying to keep my feet touching his body somewhere. Maybe if we had arranged it so my feet were in his armpits or something . . .
Anyway, we went camping this weekend with the Goffs. (Thanks guys!) They have boys about the same age as our girls. The best part of camping is sitting around the fire, looking at stars, it's the best. We explored the nearby beach area where the Hood River flows into the Sound. There were a lot of people digging for clams and oysters. Our kids dug for hermit crabs and rocks (depending on age). It was a very dirty, fun outing. We stopped on our way back to Seattle at Port Gamble, a really cute little port town. They were having a Future Festival. The best part was a parade of art and people dressed in recycled trash. They were playing instruments made of trash too, it was all very loud, bright and fun. I forgot the camera of course.
We had to take our car on a ferry and cross 2 bridges to get to the State Park where we camped. We decided that even though the dense forest and trees can make you feel claustrophobic, there is almost always an open vista of water- a lake, a sound, a port to keep a contrast to the tangle of green everywhere. It really is a beautiful area of the country.
I just made a new Picasa web album and it includes some pics of our apartment (I kept waiting for a time when it was clean, but just gave up and took some photos). Our pics link is to the right.
Another topic . . .
Keeping it real: I've decided to always try and keep my posts real. I know it's easy to slip into a mode of just posting about happy things and how great our kids are and how much fun we have. I stopped reading blogs like that because they make me think there must be something wrong with my life because it's not like that.
Case in point: Last Thursday I was determined to do 3 things all within a mile of each other. Go to the library, go to the Farmer's Market (they have the only decent garlic around) and walk to Safeway and get the milk we desperately needed. After the library, we stopped at the park to play. While we were there, a crow/raven thing landed on the stroller and took off with the girl's bag of goldfish crackers in it's beak. NO JOKE. I chased him down, but only got back about half the crackers because he shook them out. Now I had very little snack to keep them happy. As we were leaving, it started to rain. I guess most of the time it drizzles here in Seattle, but this was actual rain. The girls had jackets and stroller shades, but were still getting a little wet. I was still determined to go to the Farmers Market. We got some peaches, but I know he overcharged me, so I was mad about that. We didn't find garlic until we had been up and down the market twice and were really wet. Now I had to push the stroller up the hills back to the car. The girls were really wailing. I was so tired and wet by the time we got there and Odessa was throwing all kinds of fits. Ada was genuinely miserable. We were out of snacks. After getting the kids in the car, I had to work for about 7 minutes to get the muddy stroller into the trunk, getting even more wet. Worst of all- we HAD to stop at the store for milk. We had absolutely none at home. Every mom's most dreaded moment is taking crying children into a grocery store. You want them to at least start out happy, because they will almost always be cranky by the time you leave. Well, we marched in, soaked as we were and got our milk and got out. We lived through it, but it was one of those mom moments where you think "I can't do this!". Moments like that make you stronger for the next one to come, I am sure.