Saturday, October 18, 2008

Date Night - Part Deux

A little over a week ago, Russell and I decided to reincorporate date nights into our schedule, in order to be more intentional in our quality time together. I got to create the first date night plans! I chose for us to go out to dinner and go through a fun list of questions to keep us communicating, which fulfills me! :) We both had a great time! Next date night would be Russell's choice, and I was truly curious what he would request that we do with our time together.

Well, Russell is a outdoorsy man, and no activity fulfills him more than losing himself in his outdoor hobbies! One of his answers to my questions was that he really wants me to experience true camping with him. I'm so darn cold-natured that I shy away from cold-weather camping. Russell's ideal camping weather is freezing temps, guys! So, you can sympathize with my hesitation. However, with a son on the way and Russell dreaming more and more about family camping trips, I knew that I needed to go ahead and 'get my feet wet!' I knew that we didn't have any plans for this Friday night or Saturday, so I suggested we go camping! We did!

Alabama has so many camping options! We ended up going to Desoto Caverns in Childersburg, AL, which is only 40 minutes from our house! We loaded up the Jeep yesterday afternoon with all of our camping gear, stopped on the way for firewood, and we had a truly wonderful night and morning together around the campfire! Gosh, we had the best, deepest conversations about our childhoods, expectations, thankfulness for where God has us at this time in our lives, what God is teaching us in our individual walks with Him and fun dreaming together about our future family, etc!
After we set up the tent, Russell immediately started up our fire! YAY! :) It kept us warm into the late hours of last night. Then, he started up another beautiful fire this morning about 6:00! Temperatures started about 60 degrees last night, constantly dropping down to about 43 this morning! Chilly!

I took the above shot in "color swap" mode...thought it was pretty neat!Above, our home for the night! Our sleeping bags kept us SO warm! "Thank you, Ryan, for letting me borrow yours! I want one just like it!! It worked great!!" I was VERY impressed because I'm VERY cold natured! Russell also coached me on how to layer appropriately in order to stay warm in the sleeping bag...quality thermals, socks and a beanie cap accessible if my head got cold during the night's sleep! I did end up using the beanie. I was so cozy and warm that it was actually refreshing to get out into the cold for my THREE potty breaks (beside our nearby tree) during the night! :) Hey, when you gotta go, you gotta go! I was only spooked once during our night...when I heard what I thought might have been a fox just outside our tent, but Russell hissed at it, and it left us alone!

Hidden in a little hide-away at the caverns just before we headed home.

"Way to go, Honey! I enjoyed camping, and I'm ready to go again!"

3 comments:

Ashley Matteo said...

hey
im so glad yall had such a great time. as our boys grow we can all go camping; with russell as our guide of course!
ashley

Cindy said...

I'm glad you had fun camping and didn't freeze. Did you get to eat some s'mores? Is that a racetrack I see in the background?

We were going to take Claire camping for the first time last weekend, but went boating instead. I think we missed our opportunity because this week it has been really cold at night. I don't mind freezing myself but don't want to freeze my baby!

Nicki McDonald said...

How sweet you are! Camping is truly a fun thing to do. It is a real blessing to experience God in a natural setting - the Earth He created. I am proud of you Shireen! I only have one word for you two - Cabins!! Just kidding. I would love to be brave and camp outside in 40 degree weather (not)- but fortunatly for me, my husband is ok with the cabin style of camping. This week-end we are going to Cloudland State Park in Georgia - it is 2 hours away - check it out on the web. It could be your next sleepover date night :)