Camping

As some of you know, I've got three girls (all under the age of 8).  I'm taking them camping this weekend.  Its a church outing and it won't be primative at all.  We are planning smores and campfire sing-a-longs and all thats good.  I want them to have a good time and become less intimidated with the outdoors.

The last time I took them camping, we really roughed it- at least I did.  My girls were 6, 2 and 2 (twins) at the time.  I decided we were going to do some wilderness camping.  That we did.  I loaded the majority of the supplies in my backpack and we hiked (as much as 2 yr olds can) about 2 miles into the woods (we started pretty far in already).  Along the way, I identified leaves and rocks and trees- we had a generally good time.  I did end up carrying all the backpacks myself. 

    When the sun began to set, I found a nice patch of clearing and set up the tent.  I instructed the girls to find some firewood- they did, but they also found several spiders and bugs, accompanied by screams each time.

The tent was pitched, the hot dogs were cooking and we all enjoyed ourselves around the fire.  I didn't get much sleep that night as each of them at some point during the night needed to either use the bathroom or needed me to hold them and rock them to sleep. It was hot to begin with and pretty rough for me.

    I did see a wild boar the next day- which the girls did not see.  It was a pretty good time, but very difficult for me to do all by myself.

This time around, I believe will be a little different.  We are not hiking to the campsite and we will have other kids around for them to play with.  Hopefully, it will be a good daddy-daugher campout for all of us.  Hopefully, they will become more familiar with nature (they are city girls) and learn some skills.  After I purchase my travel trailer, I hope to make many more excursions into the woods (we won't be roughing it, but the opportunities for experience will still be there).