Page 107 of The Champion
“I see that,” he gestured toward the bags. “I wasreferring to all that.”
“Um...”
He pulled me firmly against his chest. “Admit it honey,they own you.”
“If I avoid it...itdoesn’t exist.” Untangling myself from him, I glared.
Still leaning against the side of the car, his headtilted to the side as his hand ran down his jaw.
He winked. “So...youwearing a bikini under that dress?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” I snarked as I strode past.“Don’t forget the bags.”
“Tease!” he yelled after me.
Walking toward the lake, I heard the laughter of the kidsplaying in the water, the crackle of camp fires nearby and the crisp pop ofbeer opening. It was the sounds of camping.
Why does it always feel like life is passing you by in ablur?
Before you know it you’re a mother of three, your husbandis worshiped by women, and maybe even men, all of the world and you don’t knowwhere all the time went.
All I really knew was that when we had the opportunity tobe a family, we were.
After the July, 2008 race in Chicago, Jameson had abi-week before the race in Indy. Against our better judgment, we took all thekids camping, tent camping to be exact.
Aiden convinced all of us to go camping at LakeGuntersville State Park where he spent most of his time growing up. We had somany people with us that we had to rent out most of the park.
Let me give you an idea of howmanypeople we had.So starting with us was me, Jameson, Axel, Arie, and Casten.
Six-mouth old Casten wasn’t exactly running around. Hewas constantly attached to the foodbags or eyeing his older brother andlaughing.
Spencer and Alley were here with Lane, who had justturned eight. Lexi and Cole were also here but instead of running around afterthe motorized vehicles like the older boys were, they were playing in theshallow parts of the water.
Then we had the terrible toddlers, Aiden and Emma’shellions, Charlie and Noah. Not as bad as the Lucifer Twins but were definitelygiving them a run for the title of the worst children ever. It must besomething with twin boys. I could only assume that with age, they’d be evenworse.
Being only three and a half, they still had time.
Speaking of Lucifer twins, they were here too butseemingly well behaved for the most part. They’d just turned eleven and itappeared Van kept them in line.
Justin, Ami their daughter Lily and their new littleone-year old boy, Kale, were with us as well.
Then we had the adults without kids; Tommy and hisgirlfriend Melissa (and yes, the Melissa who represents Simplex), Tyler andCody. Ryder showed up with a new girl on his arm and Tate, his wife Eva andtheir son Jake came out. Bobby, Paul, Andy and even Colin Shuman came out for anight.
It seemed as though we had everyone here including Jimiand Nancy.
With this many people, it made for some interestingtimes.
I don’t know why we went camping. It’s not like we haveever had a good time doing it. Most of our time camping was spent running aroundafter the kids and remembering all the past bad times we’d had camping.
To understand how strongly we felt about camping, youhave to understand our brush with death the last time we camped. We made surewe were in an area with no cougar sightings. If you don’t remember exactly whathappened, all I can say was we almost died, a few times.
There were no cougars in the area but there were sevenlittle boys under ten years old and two who had just turned eleven to annoy us.
I can’t count the number of times we told those boys,“Stop throwing rocks and put that goddamn stick down!” or “Get the goddamnstick out of the fire!” and “Give me the goddamn stick!”
Then there were the moments after cooking the s’moresthat we had to say, “The marshmallow is on fire, get it out of the fire, don’tthrow the marshmallow at your sister, and give me the goddamn marshmallows!”
It was hell. I couldn’t understand why parents wouldwillingly put themselves through this regularly. I sure as hell wasn’t goingto. I love my kids dearly regardless even if they throw rocks at me, spit onme, or punch me in the throat when they’re throwing a fit but when we wereoutdoors, it was worse. You wouldn’t believe the shit kids could get into at arace track with thousands of people around but when we went camping, my deargod, it was worse.
