Are you ready to meditate with Kari?
Make sure that you're laying down in bed,
You're comfortable and relaxed.
Everything is good in the world.
You've probably had a busy day and now it's time to be still and quiet and try and listen as much as you can to the story.
Heidi,
Cherry and Veya were camping.
They'd gone to Yosemite Creek campgrounds for the weekend.
They were beyond excited.
This was the first time that they had ever been camping.
They were camping in a little tent with their owners.
They pitched their tent.
They were not like completely rural camping where you're in the middle of nowhere and there's no one around.
It wasn't like that kind of camping.
This was a campsite so there were other campers at the campsite and there were showers and things like that but the showers and the toilets were quite a walk away.
Anyway let me explain.
They were camping,
Right?
They were right by the river.
It was a beautiful river,
A river that was clear and sparkly blue and crystal crystal clean and everything smelled good because they were in the middle of the forest.
It was delicious.
The weather was perfect.
The sun was shining.
There was a little bit of a breeze so it wasn't too hot.
Camping was just right for their very first camping trip and what made it even better on the camping plot next to them were two new friends Holden and Emilio.
Two little boys that had gone camping with their parents and they were super cool boys.
They liked to swim,
They liked to have fun,
They liked to do campfires,
They liked to do all the things that Heidi,
Cherry and Veil were very very excited about doing while they were camping because you know when you think about camping you think about campfires,
You think about s'mores,
You think about all sorts of cool things like sitting around the fire telling stories and Holden and Emilio were perfect because they were going to be available to tell stories and do things with them.
Heidi was the first one to introduce herself to Holden and Emilio and then she told Holden and Emilio all about Cherry.
She explained that Cherry was a little bit crazy but she was lots of fun.
Sometimes she could be loud and yes very very very very crazy but she was still lots of fun and very sweet and then she told them all about Veya and how Veya was a younger cat and she loved princesses and she was a little bit nervous about camping.
The boys met all of the cats and the first thing that they did were paddled in the river.
It was cold and fresh and very very nice.
The next thing that the cats wanted to do was possibly go for a hike.
The families all agreed and they all went for a hike together.
On the hike they met this awesome porcupine,
A porcupine named Lily.
Lily was very interesting.
She just stood in the middle of the hiking path and didn't move at all like she had no fear.
Cherry said OMG what's that?
What's that thing in the middle of the path?
I've never seen anything like it.
It looks like a it looks like a giant I don't know some kind of giant rodent but it looks like a giant but it's all spiky and stuff.
Lily automatically turned around and said hey are you talking about me?
I'm not all spiky and stuff.
I'm absolutely perfect.
I am a little bit spiky but my spikes are for a reason they're for protection.
Do you have a problem with that?
Cherry instantly liked her.
No no I like your spikes.
I see what you mean now because yeah you really couldn't like try and do anything to harm you because those spikes are like spike anybody that touches you.
Lily said yeah right exactly so no one messes around with me because I'm spiky but I'm spiky in a good way right?
Cherry said yeah yeah of course of course um of course you're not gonna spike us are you because that wouldn't be very nice.
Lily said no no no no no I don't just spike people for any old reason you know I only spike things if they try and harm me like you said I protect myself I don't attack.
Right right said Cherry well in that case this is our new friends this is Holden and this is Emilio and they're very nice boys and as you can see they're not that big so so please don't spike them.
Lily said once again I've told you I've told you already I use my spikes as a defense I never never never attack.
The boys introduced themselves to Lily and Lily told the boys that she was called Lily and they had a very nice conversation but then it was time to move on.
They carried on hiking oh the trees were green all different types of trees they were lush and they smelt really really good you could smell the leaves on the trees it was so fresh and clean in Yosemite Creek.
Then off in the distance Veya spotted something it was way way way in the distance but still she spotted it.
Everyone everyone me me not go forward me stop me stop right here.
Everyone paused and looked at what Veya was looking at off in the distance it looked like a big black animal OMG that's not what I think it is is it.
Heidi said shh everyone be quiet I think it's a black bear.
Oh my gosh we're gonna get eaten oh my gosh I think black bears can eat you.
Cod bears can eat you.
Holy Saperan bears.
Holy Saperan bears.
I think all bears can eat you right because the bears and bears eat people and cats and they eat donuts and they especially like beer and I've heard that they really really like beans and you never guess what we have beans but we don't have beans with us because we all have beans at the campsite but we do have beans and and I think I think we might get eaten.
I smell really good all the time doos oh my gosh we're gonna get eaten by a black bear.
Heidi said no just wait wait let's just stay here and see what the grown-ups do let's see what the owners do.
The owners decided to keep their distance obviously from the black bear but the black bear noticed everyone and it happened to be very very friendly.
It shouted from way way over where it was hello hello my name's Sammy are you coming over here to collect berries or possibly some kind of fruit or do you have any beans or beer come on over I'd be happy to talk to you about the forest I know everything about this forest I know everything about the lake I know everything because I live here.
The cats were listening the adults didn't seem to notice that the black bear was having a very long conversation and they didn't seem to understand it to the adults it just seemed like the bear was kind of going but the cats understood and even the boys Holden and Emilio understood that the bear called Sammy seemed very nice and was exceptionally interested in whether or not they had berries fruit baked beans or beer.
Of course they didn't have any of those things so Heidi said.
My name's Heidi and we don't have any of those things but I'm sure you're a very nice bear Sammy and sometime maybe possibly in the future if we come back here again and we come on this hike and we pass by you then maybe we'll be able to stop and chat but right now it looks like our owners and our parents don't really want to do that so you have a good day okay Sammy said well okay okay and they kept on hiking they had a lovely hike it was really nice they only hiked for maybe an hour or so because you know Holden and Emilio weren't that old they couldn't walk and walk and walk and walk forever when they got back to camp they ate the cats had tuna which were their favorite is food and the boys over on the other camp plot had their lunch and then they did some more paddling and possibly some swimming and maybe some activities around the river and then it came to night time but by this time they had a problem she'd not gone all day to the bathroom and she needed to go to the bathroom Cherry said one of her favorite things about camping or that she'd heard about camping was that you can swim you can do campfires you can sing songs you can hike and my favorite thing I want to try is nature potty you can nature potty Faya said she shook her head me no like the sound of that what does nature potty mean me don't think I want to be nature pottying Cherry said no it's awesome you get to just potty outside wherever you want well I would imagine there's some still some rules because you can't just go potty anywhere but I would imagine you can just go potty behind a tree or something or maybe dig a ditch and go potty or if you really really want to walk for a long long long long long long long time then you could go to the toilets and the showers and potty but I think you should just try it Faya try it go nature potty I bet it's awesome Faya was absolutely distraught at the idea of peeing or doing anything outside in nature she was a princess after all and you know she really did prefer her cat litter box she said me no like the idea me what if I yeah no no no and she tried very hard to get her head around the idea of going potty outside nature pottying was after all part of what she thought or Cherry said was part of camping I wonder if everybody that goes camping goes nature pottying she was a bit stressed and a bit upset and luckily one of her owners decided to take her the long long long long walk to the bathrooms so Faya could actually potty in a nice potty place that night they made a campfire and the two families sat around the campfire Cherry sang a song campfires campfires are my favorite thing in the world watch the flames do the thing let's do s'mores and maybe potatoes and we can melt cheese and and we can do things on the campfire my favorite thing in the world everyone thought that Cherry's campfire song was not very good but no one told her the boys sung songs they were much better at it than Cherry Heidi sung a song which was very very nice sounded like something that she learned when she did the scouts or something because it was very very camp firing and very appropriate they had a lot of fun it was a really awesome adventure and when they came to sleep in their tent that was fun too they made sure they hugged the boys Holden and Emilio good night wish them well sweet dreams all of that good stuff and then they went in their own tent and started to get settled down and ready for bed what was wonderful about their tent was it had like a clear window in part of the tent at the top so they could lay there and look at the stars the sky was very very clear and you could see the stars shining really really brightly in the sky not like when you're in the city and the stars don't look so obvious here in the forest at Yosemite Creek the stars were bright the brightest stars that they'd ever ever seen they decided as they were falling to sleep that they would count the stars as many as they could see through the night window in the tent one two three four five six seven eight hundred nine hundred nine hundred and fifty nine hundred and fifty one one thousand they eventually couldn't count the stars anymore they drifted off into sweet dreams with the smell of the forest and the sounds from the different animals there was people talking in the background forest voices that made them feel like they were out in the wilderness but they were not completely alone and they slept and slept and slept and had the bestest sweetest sleep that they'd had for the longest time nothing like sleeping outside in the nature outside underneath the stars and the moon feeling connected to the earth it was the bestest camping trip ever and they made two new wonderful awesome friends now how cool is that?
