Roughing It

What happens when the four guys in your life plan your Mother's Day weekend?

It gets dirty. Real dirty.

We loaded up the kids and hit the dirt trail, literally, in a quest to find the ultimate camping adventure. I tossed my camping rule book out the window (because what are rules if they're not meant to be broken), and we set off into Mexico on the most rugged outdoor excursion we'd ever undertaken.

Our destination: Laguna Hanson

We joined up with a group of about 20 from the consulate to caravan the four hours from Tijuana through some of the most beautiful country I've ever seen. We left civilization in our dust as we drove down a winding dirt path through the Mexican hills to our camping destination, touted as one of the most beautiful locations in Baja California.

And it was beautiful, to say the least. 

But more importantly, it was rugged. Running water was at least 2o miles away, hiding out somewhere with electricity, the internet and cell phone service. And the bathrooms. Well, the bathrooms were disgusting. Let's just say that they put port-a-johns to shame, and those in our party who have traveled extensively throughout the world claimed them to be the worst bathrooms they'd ever encountered. You could catch something just walking too close to the flimsy particle board doors. Most of us opted for the privacy of a boulder.

And privacy was in abundance. With only a few other campers dotted around the glistening lake, we felt like pioneers as we pitched our tents and made a fire under the black sky. As the cold night air whipped around us, we huddled around the fire extracting warmth from its blaze and the camaraderie of friends.

Dirty Boy

But when the heat from the fire just couldn't compete with the rapidly dropping temperature, I layered the boys and myself in every piece of clothing we'd thought to bring on our camping adventure. Unfortunately, none of those items was a puffy jacket. The cold didn't seem to faze the boys, though, as they ran about in the dark armed with flashlights and rambunctiousness and swaddled in a blanket of dirt.

Being Mother's Day weekend and all, I was served a meal in bed, and I relished every bite of that cold hot dog as I sat on the air mattress waiting for Andrew to go to sleep. What, you thought I'd forgo the air mattress? Not even I will rough it that much. There are certain things a girl just cannot live without, even in the wild.

Mother's Day morning dawned with the promise of warmth, and I awoke to find all three of my children piled on top of me. Of course as much as I'd like to think this was an act of love, I know it was more a desperate attempt to conserve heat. Nonetheless, each one of my grubby little boys told me they loved me and wished me a happy Mother's Day. Andrew's sounded more like a grunt, but I knew what he meant. A mother always knows.

I can now officially claim to have roughed it in the wilderness. Thank you darling family for my Mother's Day gift.