Camping was my Kryptonite

I am not a camper. I love me my running water, my comfortable bed and everything that comes with living civilly. Perhaps given our current summer living conditions, it was a perfect time to give camping another chance.

Growing up our family camped once, in our backyard, and never even attempted it again. I went to brownie and girl guide camp… even winter camp in Canada… and once to girls’ camp, but I always returned home to shower for hours, flushing the toilet incessantly and telling absolute horror stories of why I would never return. There was the year we set up our tent facing the forest and I slept walk. Then there was that fabulous time we gathered leaves to use as “toilet paper” and all got poison ivy in an unsightly place. The stories go on, but in my mind (and for those of you who know me), camping is just too dirty to ever be any fun.

However, I married a man who grew up camping and actually thoroughly enjoyed it. Call me crazy, but last year for father’s day I gave myself a death sentence and my husband a nice big tent. Being a little camping naive we spent last year’s father’s day weekend scouring the state parks and camping sites for a spot – not having a reservation. We ended up camping in our backyard and Ethan (who was then 1) and I lasted half the night before sneaking off to our respective beds.

When planning our summer Greg insisted we have a couple of camping trips. Our first one was this past weekend. I thought two nights was a little daring given our previous unsuccessful one-nighter, however I wouldn’t trade this last weekend for anything… we had so much fun and it was so relaxing. I feel like we had our first “real” family vacation. Sure there were the raccoons that attacked our campsite, Ethan kept us awake most of the night (note to self, bring pack & play), we got filthier than I ever imagined, and all our batteries died in our flashlights. But the weather was perfect, the beach a delight, the campfires memorable and the days long and perfect. We camped at the Pinery and somehow lucked out to get a campsite near the sand dunes where most everyone else had booked their site a good six months ago! The kids had so much fun exploring (and so far nobody has gotten a rash from all the poison ivy we saw)! I had read up on camping with young children and thought I had packed accordingly (but just from study and not experience). I watched a lot of other campers and their campsites and picked up lots of fun tips and ideas for next time. Did I just say “next time”? Our camping neighbors had three young children too and the kids became fast friends and a great diversion when campsite duties had to be done. I really can’t say enough. Truly it was a great escape and an enjoyable time as a family. I feel like I’ve been missing out and I plan on catching up big time!