Camping with Kids

We recently decided to go camping pack up half our house into our minivan and live for three days in a tent.  Since it had been two years since our last camping adventure I had forgotten how much darn work it is to get ready to go camping.  And then once you are there you are expected to keep on working instead of flipping on “Animal Planet” in your hotel room or lounging by the pool.  Whose idea was this anyways?!

Upon arrival you have to construct your house, cook outside and find everything that is missing because it doesn’t have a home (aka, my three year old immediately  lost his flip flops for the entire weekend!).  Throw in the joys of the great outdoors, fresh air (a plague of newborn flies), becoming one with nature (FILTHY boys climbing into bed),exploring new territory (“Mawww-ommm! How much longer is this hike?  I’m hungry!” 5 mins into our adventure and only 45 mins to go).   Ahhh, this is the stuff of memories.

But somewhere in the midst of: scrambling into the tent before the downpour, snuggling in listening to the rain and calculating how long it will take to drive home if our tent starts to leak, roasting yet another s’more for my chocolate (or is it dirt?) covered boys, waking up to my husband handing me a cup of coffee (some things blessedly don’t change even when you are camping), listening to my 3-year-old ask his dad, “Is my coffee ready yet?”, watching my boys scurry off to play with old friends and make new ones, spending hours in the sunshine and splashing in the lake, eating junk food without feeling guilty bc we hiked a whole 10 mins this morning (trail mix doesn’t count if consumed while moving, right?), and fishing at sunset – SOMEWHERE in there – we decided we really were having fun.  So much fun in fact we will probably do it all again sooner than later. 

At the end of the weekend as hubby and I folded up our portable house we discovered Thing 3’s flip flops stashed safely away directly under the tent.  It was the perfect ending to our weekend of fun.  Our suntanned and sad-to-be-leaving boys buckled up and we headed home with two-weeks-worth of dirty laundry and a successful camping adventure behind us.  

Ahh, a boys love for messin with the fire - he never seems to outgrow it!

Coffee a la hubby!

My little self-proclaimed "snuggle bug"

this is always what I get when I say "smile"

Thanks friends for bringing your fun water toys to share!

Making Ice Cream (thanks Lars for the ice cream making ball!)

Tasting the Ice Cream

Snuggled in for the Night (thanks GandG Mears for the sleeping bags!)