Camping 101

This past weekend we decided to give camping a trial run. The hubs and I both grew up camping (him, in a trailer/me, in a tent), but neither of us have ventured out since we have had children. And seeing as how both our girls are at a tolerable age (aka: sleeping through the night, not grabbing everything in sight, able to follow basic rules), I thought it would go fairly well. Nevertheless, we did a trial run in our back yard. The girls did great too. Katie was a little excited, so it took about a half an hour before she actually settled down enough to stay in her sleeping bag, but she did sleep. So with that success it was off to a campground we would go!

Finding the campground was the tricky part. I remember my mom spending many hours looking through books from the library of different campgrounds. When she finally found what seemed to be the perfect one, she would call to make a reservation (and hope that all her siblings would be happy with her pick). Now of course, the internet makes it easy to take virtual tours and place a reservation online. However, I found with that convenience comes a price. Because everyone shops online, there are many people who make reservations 6 months in advance and race the hundreds of others who are in their pj's doing the same exact thing. With in minutes, popular weekends are booked. Needless to say, my lack of experience was evident. I had to call several campgrounds only to find they had been booked months ago.

Fortunately, we were flexible in our times and just picked a close private campground on a weekend after school started. We went to Hungry Horse campground. It was a 90 acre campground, that had themes for kids, trails, 3 playgrounds, and 2 pools. The lots were all wooded and the bath houses were very clean. We were very impressed. I would have liked to have been closer to a beach, but it was nice to have such a kid friendly campground when the girls are this young. And the girls couldn't have done better. They simply had a great time and didn't want to leave. They enjoyed being able to ride their bikes in the "street," and living next door to their cousin (oh wait we do live next door to their cousins! Okay, we lived even closer). Katie got her baby fix with her cousin being in the adjacent trailer. The girls loved playing with the flashlight in the tent. We enjoyed a hayride and fed horses. And of course had smores and hobo pies (not to mention the warm cup of coffee in the brisk morning breeze). The experience brought back many fond memories along with creating a few new. I loved watching the girls have fun with so many of the things I loved as a child while we camped.

This will definitely have to be more than a one time occasion. I forgot a few items, but now I know what we need for next year. Now, if I can just remember to make my reservations a little more advance next time.