We’re off tonight to go camping with the boys. The last time we slept in a tent was at Assateague Island and Milo was only 6 months old (yikes! It’s been a while!) Both Dave and I camped and hiked all growing up. In fact, one summer I even worked as a wilderness counselor with an addiction rehabilitation program for teenagers, where I spent 6 of every 14 days literally sleeping under the stars (and making shoes of bark and leather, but that’s another story…) Another summer I worked as a river guide in central Idaho, and not only camped out, but helped set up camp and cook for the slew of passengers as well! As newlyweds, Dave and I worked in Puerto Rico for a summer and all of our vacation time was spent camping on the beaches. Needless to say, we feel pretty comfortable in the outdoors…er, that is to say, we used to.
Living outside of the outdoor mecca (aka Utah) and welcoming one, then another little boys into our life has weakened our granola spirits! I am really happy in a nice hotel on the waterfront, where the boys can nap in the room while I lounge by the pool and read. Hmm, that sounds nice… I do miss the outdoors, though. And it is really important to me that my boys grow up feeling connected to nature and at home in the wilderness. Silly as it might sound, my life has been so fulfilled by my relationship to raw earth.
We’re definitely tip-toeing back into nature. We bought a new, HUGE tent a couple weeks ago to accomodate the four of us. I’m packing our camp BBQ, portable crib (yep, the tent is that huge), and a cooler of cold beverages (including some Jarritos to enjoy with our veggie quesadillas tonight.) My dad taught me to bring cheese for quesadillas for the first night of a backpacking trip, because the rest of the trip you’ll be wishing for some yummy cheese. We’re car camping, and only for one night, but quesadillas sound good anyway, and I’m pretty sure the kids will eat’m!
I’m hoping all goes well and we gain some camping-with-kids confidence. I’ll be posting photos on Instagram (I’m an #instaddict) with hashtag #campingwithkids , if you want to follow along. Do any of you camp with your young ones? I’d really love to hear what tips and tricks you have to make the experience wonderful. Share them in the comments, and we can all learn from each other!
Wish us luck, and have a great weekend!
16 Comments
We are going camping in Arkansas next week and are so excited. I can’t imagine going camping with two kids though! We have enough to bring with the way it is! Good luck to you and have fun!
There really is so much to bring! I may need a minivan for camping (before I need one for another child!) have fun next weekend!
ooh. have fun! I was shocked at how “easy” it was at Assateague. I’ve got nothing except to say relax–they will get dirty. Let them play all day so they will sleep on the ride home. Look forward to hearing about it.
“relax” is great advice. I’m sure Dave will agree with that one;)
We have camped every memorial day since we were dating. Including one year with our six week old. This year we will have just moved into our new house and I will literally be nine months pregnant. What to do…
Woah, I need to hear your secrets…and favorite camping recipes! Good luck with your new baby, I think you deserve a break this year;)
How fun! Hope it goes well for you all!! If Milo does well, Dave should take Milo to Fathers and Sons next weekend.
I haven’t heard of that…what is it? With the ward? Sounds awesome. Dave and Milo would totally dig a father/son outing.(Eliot and I would, too!)
I agree. Just let them get as dirty as they want, and eat whenever they want and just go to bed late (when it’s dark). My little Hal loved the fire. We also almost always do Carne Asada tacos…you can chop all the toppings before hand, bring the meat in a marinade and it cooks really fast on a grill, or even a cast iron skillet over the fire. Breakfast is usually some sort of messy egg, tomato, cheesy sorta omlet like mess in the skillet. We also just put a ton of pads, blankets etc all in the tent and let the 1 year old have his half of the tent to get comfy in (I dressed him in warmer pj’s than normal).
Our Father and Sons was supposed to be tonight (but of course it’s thunderstorming) the 2 year old and his daddy are pretty bummed.
Also, we used to live in DC. Go camp at Swain’s Lock. It’s right on the canal and Potomac, it’s free (first come first serve), close and awesome.
Ah, delightful. I am sure my boys will get good and dirty. Carne Asada sounds awesome! Thanks for the tip. The toddler bed down sounds great, too. I’m almost certain I’ll need to snuggle with Milo until he falls asleep (…since I have to most nights at home!) Warm PJ’s is a good reminder,too.
Too bad about your F/S activity! I still haven’t heard anything about ours…
And, Swain’s Lock looks awesome! We’re for sure going to try that out. Thank you!
I agree, just enjoy. We try to go at least a couple times a year and the boys LOVE it. Did you get the green Costco tent? We splurged and bought it this year, it was a great deal. Did you notice the zip-close portion? That screams toddlers own space to me. L is so excited that he and B get their own “room”. I like it too
. We’re going next weekend, so it will be fun to hear about your outing to get us excited. Have you figured out where you’re going? In my experience, if you plan to camp at a VA State Park, you’ll want to call ahead and make sure they have space. Tent spots really fill up around here.
We got a Kelty at the last REI sale, and LOVE it! It’s a 6 person and about 8′x10′x6′. It was really important to me that we could stand upright inside! I did see that Costco one, and think it looked perfect. We headed to Prince William Forrest, and luckily there were plenty of first-come spots available. We loved it and will for sure go back. We should plan a weekend together!
Wow! I really want to take mine camping too because every vacation we took growing up was camping and it was magical and I want my kids to experience it. But in my case they will have to experience it when they are a little older. The four of us in a tent sounds like a night of 0 sleep, especially in my case, but good luck, you are braver than me. I plan on taking my kids camping all the time at some point in life.
Hope camping was fun! Loved all the photos!!!
we love camping and have done it quite a bit with kids. lots with one, several times with two, and with three … i don’t think we’ve been yet! BUT we also have a gigantor tent that can fit a port-a-crib, which is SOO nice with tiny ones. we bring lots of yummy food, clothes we don’t care all that much about, the usual sunblock and bug spray, and honestly, my best tip is to let them have fun! i’ve found that they are so incredibly entertained by the endless possibilities nature offers, i end up with a lot of free time. it’s really nice. camping with other families is my favorite though because then the kids not only have nature, but extra kids to entertain them! then you can share food responsibilities too. the times we have managed to bring bikes have been SO FUN, especially if we also managed to squeeze in the bike trailer (let’s just say michel’s engineering brain does wonders with car tetris! and don’t underestimate what you can attach to the outside!) the kids always LOVE to help cook, especially in the dutch oven, so we always let them. and just to set your mind at ease, all of our own family’s camping has been done outside of utah, and mostly on the east coast! woohoo! (specifically vermont, new hampshire, and maine). camping by water is always fun, especially if you can bring or rent a canoe. obviously, it’s one more hazard for little ones, but still so fun. if i were still on the east coast, i would head back up to new england at least once for camping! so many lakes, and camping on the maine coast is one of my favorite memories. i’m sure the mid-atlantic coast has some great spots too, we were just too thick into craziness in our lives when we lived there to make a camping trip happen. this is such a long comment, i should probably have just emailed you! haha! hope you guys had fun!
one more thing! (i know, seriously?) camping in new england, (so maybe the rest of the east coast as well) is NOT at all like utah where you can just fly by the seat of your pants and find a place to camp on a whim. places require reservations, and so many people do rv camping that you have to specify a tent site vs. an rv site, and most campground are super full for holidays. we managed a few camping trips sort of on the fly (like planning a day before we left) but it required A LOT of searching and phone time for me figuring out where was available for us to go. and a lot of sites have people limits, so if you’re going with friends, they may have to reserve their own site, so the earlier you plan, the higher the chance you have of getting camp sites next to each other.