We went camping

Yesterday, my handsome man turned 24.

I'd been asking him the same, subtle question for a while. It went like this: "What do you want to do for your birthday?"

And he'd been giving me the same, blunt answer every time: "Nothing."

Nothing? 

Nothing.

Obviously, a real-and-true nothing just wasn't an option. But since his birthday fell on a weekday, I understood his desire to remain in a sans-streamers "chill mode" for the evening. 

The fun-tastic solution? I surprised him with a camping trip. In our living room.

 

 

 At our campsite, there was a botanical garden.

Okay, so this is really a commission series I'm working on that's pulling double duty.

And there were top-of-the-line ammenities.

A remote control for him, design magazines for her. And a kickin' dinner menu.

Complimentary water? Clearly, this place was 5-star.

S'mores: It's just not a camping trip without them.

As soon as the hubs walked through the door, he went to change into his "camping clothes." For the rest of the night, this happened.

This is my new favorite picture of all time.

He liked the fact that he got to play in a fort, eat hot dogs/baked beans with bacon/potato salad, and watch TV.

I liked that there were no bugs.

Our sprawling campsite. Don't you just love nature?

Overall, it was a great day at Kamp Kiker. He had a happy birthday, and I had a happy one-month wedding anniversary. Definitely a win-win—love that.

~

On a side note, I just figured out how to import my old blog onto this new site. This might give new readers the impression that this is a long-established, well-tended sort of blog. It's not (or at least it wasn't in the past...totally my goal to go into serious-blogger mode and change that). But it has sporadically documented some of the cooler things I've done in life, like my first day as an US Weekly intern, or the time I spent in Southern France working as an au pair. 

For the sake of some good ole' memories, reminders of what was on my heart back then, and probably lots of laughs, I'm going to share links to a few of my favorite older entries every time I post something new. Sometimes, it's not good to look into the past. In this case, I think it is. 

Two good ones to get this party started:

1. Madrid mishap—A disaster of layover in Spain. Warning: Reading this post may cause uncontrollable fits of laughter.

2. As fast as you can—Reflections on running—literally, around a track, and figuratively, away from things that are scary or uncomfortable.

Enjoy!