The Smell of deFEET

Overheard at a liquor store in Winter Park, CO.  Young boy speaking to dad standing next to me in beer aisle "What is that smell?! It is giving me a headache.".  Dad replies, "Me too!".  Extremely self conscious that perhaps that smell was emanating from me and my unwashed, working out, camping with 2 dogs and a kiddo in a dirt pile possible body odor.  If the smell was from me, the father seemed to forgive me when I grabbed a six pack of Oskar Blues "Mama's Little Yellow Pils". and he solemnly nodded and said I had made a good choice.

When did camping become stressful and dirty instead of a good reason not to wash and being completely unplugged and stress free?  No doubt camping with kids is stressful.  There is the unrelenting Colorado sun beating down with little shade to hide from it due to the pine beetle infestation killing off trees.  It is freezing at night (literally) so little ones wake up several times a night shivering.  There are no tv's or toys to keep kids occupied.

But then again there are no tv's or toys to keep kids occupied.  I must say when we were mixing at a playground at a local ski resort with clean smelling kids and my little one had dirty hair, face and clothes including pitch black feet from walking barefoot all weekend, I was not embarrassed.  I was proud that my kiddo had embraced the feel of being footloose and fancy free.  No doubt, coming home tired, bug bitten and dirty is tough and a lot of work for the adults but truly in the end that feeling of not needing to meet all of societies cleanliness requirements is liberating.  And there is always the wonderful and refreshing wash off in the creek that awakens all of the senses in one icy snap.

And no amount of trouble will ever make me want to give up my nightly midnight star gazing moment when I wake up and need to pee.  I never mind getting out of the tent in the freezing Colorado night air because that view of Orion on countless camping nights is a precious grounding reminder to me that there is a much bigger beautiful world out there for us to explore with Sophia, dirty and smelly or not.