We had to travel 2 hours away to the middle of nowhere. It was late at night and it was dark and pouring outside. My mother, sister, two of my cousins, and my aunt were piled into the chevy tahoe. This all happened about eight years ago. Now my sister Ava, my cousin Matt, and I were not very excited about this camping trip we were taking. Little did I know, it was a trip I will never forget. On the drive there, my sister Ava, my cousin Matt, and I listened to our parents talking in the front seat. They talked about memories from when they were younger. They told paranormal stories that scared my eight year old self. They shared stories about their cousin whose house was haunted, and when they would go visit things would move around the house. One event they told about was how my Aunt Melissa was at their cousins house, it was late at night and the dog started barking at the closet door. Suddenly, the bedroom door slammed close and a book flew off the shelf in the closet. After hearing this story, I fell asleep for the rest of the ride.

We arrived at the camp. The rest of our family had arrived already and were waiting for us. The camp was a small house with an above ground pool on a big piece of land in the forest. We met our other cousin, Jevin, there and were prepared to have the worst camping trip of our lives. It was cold and rainy, and we were not allowed to drive the four wheelers in the rain. We were hungry and devoured a box of saltine crackers that we found sitting on the counter. It finally stopped raining, but it was too cold to swim, another disappointment in our night. The next disappointment that came this night was when were told we had to sleep outside in a tent so that the adults and babies could sleep inside. But things started looking up for us later in the night. The adults made a fire, and we had our favorite camping snack, smores. We were able to ride the four wheelers through the woods and were laughing and listening to music the whole time. Our uncle drove us pass an abandoned house that he said was haunted. We talked about that house and made jokes about it for the rest of the night. We then played capture the flag in the dark and flashlight tag. We ended up having such a fun time that we did not want to leave the next morning. This camping trip ended up being a great memory for us, and we still talk about that trip today. Through this trip I learned to look at the positives and that even something that looks like it is going to be boring or a horrible experience can be a great time, bring happiness, and great memories to look back on.