Camping and Cancer

Have you ever had one of those moments when you just look around at your family and know that your falling even more in love with them? I had one of those days on our camp trip.

Ryan and I were itching to get out of town and into some mountains. We were still recovering from the fact that we didn't get to go to Colorado for the family get together so we figured we would go to the closest place we could. Living in West Texas, the closest mountains and trees are a four and a half hour drive into New Mexico.

We left town on a Friday and headed for Lincoln National Forrest. The whole forrest had been closed for the last three weeks due to the extreme fire danger. Even though they had reopened there was still a ban on all campfires and pretty much anything to do with and open flame. We had a 40-50% chance of rain for the whole weekend but we really didn't care. It could have been the storm of the century and we would have gone just to smell/feel the cool pine breeze.

Once we pulled in to the camp and started to unload and step up, the first thing Evan did was pick up a stick and start hitting a tree. McKenna went exploring and Alana started running laps around the picnic table. Ryan and I looked at each other with huge grins and commented that it was so fun to see our kids out being wild in nature. Living in an apartment with no backyard they rarely get the chance to run free. It's in their blood to thrive in the wilderness. They really did not disappoint.

Saturday morning we got up to a beautiful over cast, but still warm, morning. We took our time eating breakfast and packing a lunch. Once ready, we took off on the nearest trail and headed out for an adventure. Everyone was enjoying the hike and all the things to look at. The kids were keeping a strong pace and having a lot of fun. We came to a crossroads and gave the kids the choice of either hiking up to the top of the mountain or staying in the valley, being naive and excited they wanted to go to the top. Not five minutes later Evan was complaining. It was pretty constant from that moment on but Ryan was not going to turn back and instead, turned the situation in to a chance to toughen Evan up (he's kind of a wimp).

We made it pretty far before stopping for lunch. While we were eating the clouds started rolling in pretty dark and the thunder was getting closer. We decided that once we were done eating that we would head back down before the rain started. We didn't make it to far before the rain started. We hurriedly put on the ponchos I packed and continued on. It wasn't long before the rain stopped but we didn't want to turn around and go up again. There was no complaining on the downward trip. :)

Once back at camp the kids ran around like wild animals and had a blast playing together. Ryan and I played some dominoes and read our books. It was a perfect day.




That night I got a text at 4:58am. I heard it beep but I didn't really wake up enough to check it. A couple of minutes later I heard another text beep. It was from my bestie Brooke. #1) "Are you guys still camping?" #2)"Gavin is in ICU, he's got a mass in his lung, we are hoping it's an infection and not a tumor". Gavin is Brooke's 17 month old son.

 I didn't really sleep after that. We got up and had breakfast. I texted her and asked if there was "any news this morning". Her reply, "It's cancer, we see the pediatric oncologist Tuesday, we will be here for a long time, surgery this week sometime, find out if it's malignant or metastasized and do chemo and radiation".

We broke down camp and broke down in tears. We could no longer focus on going hiking or having a picnic in the woods. All I knew was that I had to get back and get to Brooke's side.