The Truth is...

We ended up not going camping this past weekend down on the Cape.

What was going to be a three night trip, turned into a two nighter, and then turned into... nothing.

I am a little embarrassed to say that this change in heart came way too late- I had already fully packed, Steve had already gotten the truck from his parents, and we had already gotten camping equipment from numerous friends and relatives.

Steve was about to load the truck, in the cold rain, when he asked me:

"We really want to do this, right?" That man senses my hesitation like no one else can.

For the life of me, I could not answer "Yes". Every inch of my intuition screamed: "Don't do it! It doesn't make sense!"

What didn't make sense was to take our entire family on a 3 hour trip one way (it would have been our longest), to go tent camping for the first time, with constant rain in the forecast, and temperatures at night dipping into the low 40's. If it was just Steve and I? Sure! We would play games with everyone else, drink, eat and be merry. But with two kids aged 2 1/2 and under? It just didn't make sense.

What I learned from this experience is that there is a difference between stepping outside of your comfort zone, and doing something that makes little sense with your gut telling you definitely not to do it. The couples and families that did go? My hat is off to them. I think they were brave and I bet they had a good time. I was very emotional in making this decision because I didn't want to let everyone else down. What I learned is, not wanting to let other people down is not a good enough reason to go through with something that your intuition tells you not to do.

Instead, we made s'mores in the microwave and rented a movie. We ended up having a spontaneous day off from the kids when Nana offered to take them. I got time to plant flowers in the cemeteries, instead of trying to squeeze it in during the week. We went to Look Park, rode the train and went on the playground. In short, it was a weekend that was so good, I never second guessed our decision not to go camping.

Next year we are more than willing to give it another go!