Camping

I just got back from my first camping trip of the season with two of my married children, their families, my daughter who's home from school on break, and my husband.  We chose a campground that's only about 40 miles away, with good facilities and not too far off the beaten path.

I will admit that I'm used to camping in the summer when it's warm and sunny but we were fortunate that it didn't rain and it wasn't too cold.  I think I'm still a summer camping girl  :)  and a warm comfortable bed sounds pretty good too!

Who goes camping in April?!

I'd forgotten how scary it is to go camping with little children.  The grandchildren who went on this trip are three and one.  Their parents take them camping often but all I could think about was the three year old wandering off and getting lost and the baby getting too near the campfire.  Call me paranoid but my mind tends to imagine the worst possible scenario.  They did really well though.  Their mother set up a bright yellow rope around the perimeter of the campsite to give boundaries to the children.  That was a really good idea and they actually stayed within their limits.  She has obviously been doing this for a while!

We have two tents, a large one and a smaller, easier to set up one.  Because this was a short trip, I chose the smaller tent.  Key learning - my husband like to be able to stand up in his tent and I don't particularly enjoy crawling around the tent either!  Next time we'll use the larger tent  :)

So, for a first camping trip of the season, we did ok.  There are a few things we were lacking that would have made the trip more enjoyable (like folding camp chairs) but we'll work on getting those as we find them on sale.  And, I think we'll have a few backyard camping "trips".  At least we can use our own bathroom!  Porta-potties are gross!!!