Some of our favourite ‘Theunissen Tales’ are related to our annual camping trips. We’ve been going to the same campsite for the last twelve years, usually twice a year. There’s nothing fancy about it, no fancy facilities, just a play park and the woods. As soon as we arrive, the kids disappear off to the park or the woods and only reappear for food or because they want one of the dads to take them on an adventure. This is about our most famous adventure!

One year, when the children were between 2 and 9, Sean decided to take some of our kids and our friends’ kids for a walk in the woods. He had Millie (8), Amelia (7), Abbie (4), Leo (3) and Eloise (2) with him. They were deep in the woods, ducking under low branches and climbing over fallen tree limbs, often Sean having to carry them over!

As they climbed over one branch, an ominous buzzing filled the air. Sean saw the source, a wasps nest! ‘Run’ came the cry! Sean picked up the two smallest children, Millie ran faster than she has ever done in her life and they all came screaming out of the woods, wasps pursuing!

Sean was being stung repeatedly as it was taking him longer to get out! The other children had mostly escaped, Millie arrived at the caravan having totally lost it! She was trying to pull off her fluffy cardigan, which had wasps clinging to it, screaming the whole time. I helped her rip it off and threw it onto the grass. She was still screaming as everyone else turned up.

There were still wasps buzzing around and fellow campers on the site were now staring at us as the screams continued. Unable to calm her down and check the other children, we safely put Millie in the car, unreachable by any wasps!

The wasps slowly dissipated, and we could survey the damage. Adam and Sarah, who were camping with us, checked their girls while I checked my little two. Sean had been stung all over, the most painful sting on his lip. Fortunately, the only other person stung was Abbie who had been stung just above her eye and it had started swelling. We reassured all the other campers around us we were ok and gave Abbie some antihistamine.

Millie was still in the car, but the screams had subsided. Abbie’s eye had swollen shut by this stage. She was perfectly calm but thought we should get it checked out and so headed to the out of hours GP.

When we got back, everyone was calm, and we sat down to eat dinner. Unfortunately, as we were eating a wasp (in reality a fly) decided to join us. Sean, still traumatised, leapt up from his bench and yelled ‘Quick! Everyone inside!’ But Adam had his ‘Executioner’ bat and swatted the offending creature away!

Everyone recovered fine from their wasp stings and now it’s just funny story! We can all laugh at the image of Sean running out of the woods carrying two children and surrounded by three others, all screaming, like something from a horror movie!