How to get a really good night of sleep

1.Take your family camping.  Try to leave just as soon as possible ( for us this means waiting for our teenagers to get home from work, around 5:30.)

2. Sing during the drive (with gusto) from a packet of fun songs that you -brilliantly -thought to make and print off just for the occasion. (Now the kids will learn and love some of my favorites from when I was growing up!)

3. Drive to an unfamiliar area and circle the lake over and over again as you try to decide on just the right camping place.

4. Finally decide on any old camp because you are running out of day-light. Start a fire so that you can cook your foil dinners just as soon as possible.  Listen to little kids complain about how hungry they are, and pull out lots of snacks as you wait for the food to cook.

5. Read from your current family read-aloud as you wait.

6. Finish eating around 10:00, and decide that it's too late to start the dutch-oven cobbler that you had planned.

7. Get every one bedded down for the night in the camper.

 8. Sleep in the back of the Suburban with your husband and almost 11-month old. Giggle as your baby crawls up and down the inside of the car (and all over each of you) pausing frequently to find his "comfy spot."

9. When he finally falls asleep between you, around 11:30, boost him over your head to the bed that you made for him.  Wake up periodically during the night to pull him out of cracks and cover him up!

10. Wake with the baby at 5:30 am when he won't take his stone-cold bottle.

11. Dress and watch your husband build up the fire and start breakfast.

12. Feel ravenous and eat heartily at every meal!

13. Take off to see the sights at Yellowstone National Park with some very excited little boys that have been dying to go!

14. Stop for lunch somewhere - do something to your hair after seeing the family picture:) enjoy the perfect temperature in the shade, and watch your kid's antics:

These trees gradually got wider and wider, and the kids had to see how far they could go

15.Head out to see "Old Faithful".  When you arrive, offer to sit in the car with the baby who has become overly tired and finally fallen asleep.  When he wakes up, set out across a VERY long, hot parking lot to find the rest of the family.  Search up and down, before deciding that you must have missed them and they are really back waiting for you at the car.  Walk back across the LONG parking lot. See that they are not there.  Get drinks for you and baby.

16. Head back to see "Old Faithful". This time you get to see the geiser go off as you wait for the family!  Head back to the car and wait there for the family, who, when they arrive, explain excitedly that they were minutes too late to see Old Faithful the first time, so they hiked around and managed to see Grand Geiser, which only goes off every 7 hours!

Then they saw Castle Geiser, go off, which only happens every 13 hours.

THEN on their way back they also saw Old Faithful.  Talk about timing it right!!

Abram has been learning about bison, and as they walked around looking at geisers, they saw this one.  Abe is pretty sure that this is a "raging bull".  He was pretty excited to see that;)

17. After all the geiser sightings, make a decision with your husband to leave for home: said decision being precipitated by little boy melt-downs and squabbles amongst children.  Older children are ready to have the younger children STOP singing (at the top of their lungs) the packet of songs that you thought you were so brilliant to make and bring along:)

18. Fall asleep within minutes, along with everyone else in the car, besides your driving husband, and sleep for a good hour. Wonder how your husband can keep his eyes open.

19. Reach home, make dinner and spend an hour or so cleaning up from camping out.

20. Go along with your 11- year- old's request to help her finish her skirt because she wants something new to wear tomorrow. Realize that she needs an accessory, cut apart some old beaded jewelry, and make her a necklace to go with the skirt!

21. Fall into bed and sleep very soundly all. night. long. Aaaaaahhhhh:)

(If you don't feel like you can follow all of these steps for a good night's sleep, reading all of them might just do it for you, it will take so long!)