lucky.charms.taste.like.camping.

Ever since I was three, my dad's taken me (and my siblings as they've each gotten old enough) on a camping trip. My mom stayed home since she's "allergic" to camping- something I thought was a legitimate allergy until I was old enough to know better. All this exposure worked its magic, and I still love camping to this day. Some of the benefits of camping with my dad are as follows: free roaming in the woods, playing in streams and the occasional waterfall, building and poking around in the fire, eating s'mores, sweeping and organizing the tent daily (believe it or not, this was one of my favorite activities- once I even made a broom out of some grass, a stick, and twine since we'd forgotten ours), using his pocket knife to carve our own cooking sticks, and best of all, picking out our very own box of sugary cereal. Our cupboard at home routinely consisted of kix, cheerios, and wheaties, so we were beside ourselves with glee as we stopped at a grocery store and surveyed the options. I can't remember what my siblings picked out, but I often ended up with lucky charms or cinnamon toast crunch. My current cereal of choice is kashi go lean, but I was craving something tasty, and grabbed a box of lucky charms at the store yesterday. This morning when I sat down to eat them, I was excited. At the first bite, I felt like I was sitting in my pj's on a picnic table, surrounded by banged up metal pans and paper napkins, with the smell of damp forest lingering in the air. I'll have to bring a box of sugary cereal along next time I go camping!