Camping in Mullerthal

Beaufort Castle

As soon as the boys were out of school last Friday, we loaded them and our camping gear into the car and drove over to Nate and Becky Packer's, where five men and nine children were meeting for an informal "Father & Son's" campout in Luxembourg's Mullerthal region, known as Little Switzerland.

It would be Otto's second time and Aksel's first. The first time Ben took Otto camping in May of 2014, they returned home at 2 am.We had low expectations about the weekend.

Ben had only returned from a six-day trip to Poland four hours earlier and had spent his time home assembling gear and buying an air mattress.

Ben returning from the airport.

The kids were pumped. Just cruising around together on the Packer's driveway was fun for them. Soon kids and carseats were swapped and loaded into the Andrews, Packers, and Mullins cars so that our car and the Ware's car could stay with in the Luxembourg City with the Moms and babies.

Eliza, Vivian & Ingrid

That evening, Martha, Megan, Star and I all stayed at Becky's, talking, eating Star's pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and entertaining three baby girls. We ordered €100 in food from Bay of Bengal and I put Ingrid in her jammies and down for the night in a spare bedroom at 6:45 pm.

We painted nails, forced Star to paint her nails for the first time, ate more cookies and tarts and cake, and planned a getaway of our own this winter.

As we sat around talking about our time in Luxembourg, when it will come to an end and what the next phase will be for all of our families, it occurred to me that of the five of us around the table I would be the only one not returning to Seattle. And it felt a little sad. Not sad enough to make me cry, but sad enough to already miss the women I was sitting with; women who completely understand my experience every single day here.

Ingrid didn't make a peep until 11:45 pm and when she did, we were shocked by the lateness and happily packed up our polish, babies and laughter for the night.

The next morning morning, the women and babies carpooled up north to Beaufort, Castle where we met up with our husbands and children.

Martha, Megan (& Viv), Becky (& Eliza), Star, and Tasha (& Ingrid).

Dating from the 11 Century, Beaufort Castle is made up of ruins of a medieval fortress and an adjacent Renaissance château in eastern Luxembourg. We spent an hour touring the castle on our own, helping Aksel get a grip, and trying to hide flashlights from crying children.

The Mullins, Andrews, Oates, Packers & Wares. 

Afterward, we caravanned to Echternach Lake (15 minutes further east) on the border of Germany.

Kids played for nearly three hours, adults picnicked, men tossed a football, Russ gave kids a wild ride on the zip line, Star pushed Aksel on the swing for way too long, some made plans to get together later that night for the BYU game, and I ate more of Star's pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.

I also tried to launch a business idea that no one else liked and later became extremely concerned when Martha went into the bathroom but still hadn't come out 25 minutes later. Luckily, she was found out exploring paddle boat options and not passed out on the floor.

After everyone felt exhausted, we packed up and headed back to the car. I was so excited to drive home, knowing the kids would sleep, enabling me to get a full report of the night from Ben.

Me: Okay, tell me everything. 
Ben: I'm tired and I'm driving. Can we talk about it later? 
Me: You'll forget everything!
Ben: That's possible. 

Good news: he didn't forget everything.

The group of men, boys, and Sienna arrived at the Echternach Camping Officiel site at 6 pm after consuming all of Becky's cookies, getting lost once, and a short nap by Aksel.

The children were immediately released to the adjacent playground while Dad's set up tents and Matt started cooking hot dogs for kids and tin foil dinners for men.

It was dark by the time dinner had been eaten, so they roasted marshmallows and had s'mores with a bag of marshmallows I had been hoarding since BBQ season here in Luxembourg and a box of Honey Maid graham crackers I'd been hoarding since our trip to Utah. Otto and Aksel don't love s'mores, so they instead ate a lot of chocolate and listened to Adam tell ghost stories.

At 9:30 pm, the boys climbed into the tent (borrowed from the Andrews) with Ben, put on their footie pajamas, read Just me and my Dad, cried for me, and then fell asleep listening to Ben sing.

Ben spent the next few hours in the dark (all the flashlights had been passed out to crying, wanting children), eating peanut m&ms and talking.

Otto slept through the night. Aksel woke up 57 times. But they made it! Good job, Ben.