A summertime experience to remember
From the moment we found out we were having twins, I had a preconceived notion that we wouldn’t be doing much anymore.
Late in the pregnancy, I remember taking our older son Hudson out for dinner and thinking “This is it. Likely our last enjoyable supper of freedom. It will never look or feel like this again.”
Fast forward nearly two years later and I was right. Nothing is ever easy anymore and it’s usually always a complete spectacle to do anything out in public. It’s become all that I know, though. As twin +1 parents we have to constantly keep tabs on six arms, six legs and three very mobile strong-willed bodies. It’s a lot—all of it—but what I’ve come to realize is that for every one of our challenges comes equal parts reward.
That’s how I feel about our recent camping trip to Hornby Island, BC.
It’s a place I grew up visiting almost every summer with friends, enjoying every ounce of its laidback tropical vibe without a care or responsibility in the world.
Hornby is peaceful, calm, cool and collected. It’s where my husband and I first travelled to in our early days of dating. We had set up a tent at the oceanside campsite and blissfully floated away on the crystal-clear shallow blue waters.
The island holds an immense sentimental value and so I thought that this would be the year to go again and celebrate my husband’s birthday—with the support of my dad—as it was Father’s Day too! So we rented an RV, we had grandpa’s extra hands and we had the ambition. I will say I definitely braced myself for work and set my standards quite low for any form of relaxation. I don’t think anything could have prepared us for what was to come, though.
Getting there wasn’t so bad. It’s a few hours’ drive and two small ferries to arrive at this paradise, all while being first-timers towing a large sleeps-six trailer. The twins had their nap and we got there at a good time and lucked out with beautiful weather for the majority of our stay.
Our home base was the same campsite as always—the one with two-minute loonie showers and outhouses for bathrooms. It’s only a short walk away from the stunning Tribune Bay Beach so I was all for roughing it on a budget.
The hardest part of trip? Taking all of the chaos and stress from home and seemingly amplifying it in one-sixteenth of the space. It was a humbling challenge not for the faint of heart, each and every one of the five nights, six days.
It was meals eaten on the ground. It was endless diapers. It was a questionable-family-hygiene-type of animalistic vacationing.
The biggest fail of the trip? Not bringing the twins’ travel beds along. My husband said there wasn’t room—and while this did seem true—they turned out to be crucial.
In place of the pack-and-plays was a lower bunk bed with a makeshift rail guard enclosure for the twins to sleep together. My daughter figured out how to break out of that after the first few sleepless nights of adjustment.
We never knew if she was finally asleep, or if she was standing up in the trailer walking around like a little ghost in her sleep sack. Eventually the twins found their rhythm and cuddled up together. This was the first time they’d done this, other than newborn naps, and the visual made everything worth it. It was the sweetest thing.
The most important realization of the trip? Not having thought through safe containment (for sanity) or ideas for daily distraction.
I spent way too much time thinking about meals and snacks and not enough communicating with my husband about how each day would go for entertainment, how they would eat their meals and what to do for naps. An octagon enclosure saved us—and so did the beautiful beach—but we could have done so much more to prepare for how each day would look. You live and learn I guess.
The best part of the trip?
I got closer with my dad and was able to see him in such a different light, helping out with our children in a different atmosphere. The twins finally got to experience something so different than their usual daycare and bedtime routine in a post-lockdown world. Their eyes lit up in a way I’ll never forget.
Our family of five once again grew through taking on a new challenge and coming out more knowledgeable and resilient on the other side. The goal was to have a family experience and create some lasting memories—and we did just that. We sailed back home with something that far exceeded what I ever could have envisioned.
Next time, though, I won’t go anywhere without those travel beds.