Camping Magic

Our Big Girl (age 6) has been asking to go camping for months now. All summer she would say things like, “I love the playground, but you know what I like even more? CAMPING!” or “Remember how much fun we had camping?!” She knows the magic of the camping trip.

For reference, we had our third baby in February. and he was a doozy - he had significant and lingering jaundice and major breastfeeding issues. That’s a story for another day, but suffice to say it’s taken us a while to get our feet under us as a family of five. We didn’t manage a spring camping trip, and somehow, summer got away from us. (Also, we just really don’t love camping in the summer heat and bugs.)

This fall also has ended up being pretty busy, and it would have been realllllly easy to let the whole season slide by without a camping trip. But then my Timehop app showed me the photos from last year’s September camping weekend, in which I had written that, “We are exhausted all the time anyway; we might as well be exhausted in a beautiful place!” I’m not sure what it says about me, but I found that freshly motivating this year. Because it’s true - parenting is hard no matter where we are, so we might as well do it somewhere different and gift our children a cool experience. There’s always a little bit of magic involved in tent camping, and sometimes you get lucky. and it’s a lot of magic! Keep reading…this was a lucky, magical trip…rain and all.

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Last year’s camping trip that inspired this one! That’s Mr. Middle before he was a middle, and Baby B in the belly!

Finally, last week, I said we should just pick a weekend that looked nice, and Make It Happen. And lo and behold, the weekend right after I said that looked pretty good on the weather forecast! Coincidentally, it’s one of the few free weekends we have before it gets Really Cold.

I booked the campsite before I could think any harder about it. I booked it on a Tuesday, which gave us four days to prep and mentally prepare. We already had Friday evening plans, so this was just a one-nighter, which we figured would be fine for a first-time tent camping experience with three little kids.

This actually isn’t the youngest baby we have camped with. We camped with Mr. Middle when he was five months old, and Baby B is currently 7 months old. This was, however, the first time we had taken all three. I think it might be better that I didn’t give myself too much time to prep or overthink it! I figured for one night, we could survive anything. People in my 1000 Hours Outside facebook group do ‘way crazier outdoor things than this, often with way more children, all the time. Our plans are positively tame compared to some of those rockstars!

Youngest baby camping award goes to Mr. Middle (when he was the youngest), pictured here in the carrier while I help his sister pound tent stakes in.

So in the midst of the workweek, which for Hubby involves long hours at his computer, and for me involves very full days with a lot of children in and out, we prepped for camping! Hubby dragged all the stuff down off the attic, I prepped foil pack meals (HIGHLY recommend - I freeze them in advance and they double as ice packs for the cooler, and they’re really easy to just cook over the fire!) and packed every warm clothing item my children own. The low was supposed to be somewhere between 40 and 50 which is honestly totally doable, IF you have the right items.

Saturday morning rolled around and naturally, we still had a thousand things to pack and prep. Tent camping with kids is honestly like 50% actual camping and 50% packing and prepping, in terms of time and energy. We started packing the van around 8am and hit the road around noon. Of course, this would have been easier if we hadn’t had to shovel the van out first. (Are we the only ones who look as though we live in our van? Surely we aren’t the only ones.)

When everyone was done yelling at everyone else and we were all in the van (please do go read my blog on intentional communication - we failed in most ways during our morning of packing), everyone’s mood improved instantly!

When we arrived, it was sunny and gorgeous, so we set the kids free in the campsite while we set up the tent. Mr. Middle was fascinated by this whole process and helped hammer in every stake. It took about the equivalent of a full work week’s hours to set it all up with his help, but we wouldn’t have changed it - he was so cute and so determined to help. Big Girl was busy climbing on stumps and digging in the stones.

We packed exactly four toys - two shovels and two dump trucks, and also some crayons and paper. It was all we needed. I had packed lunch, so we didn’t have to cook anything. They were happy as a pair of clams sitting on the picnic table eating their apples. Baby B was also living his best life, being worn by mom AND outside - that’s his version of heaven.

We prioritized getting the tent up, getting beds laid out and organized, and setting up a rain fly before we went and did any exploring, so we weren’t scrambling when it got dark. I also highly recommend laying out everyone’s pajamas on their beds so you don’t have to search for things in the dark.

Let’s chat about beds for a moment. This trip, we did something new (for us) and packed the NUGGET pieces. We have tried air mattresses and camp beds and just about everything else, but man, we are old these days, and our backs are usually struggling the next day. So this time I wasn’t messing around, and we committed a large amount of van space to packing those nugget sections. If you aren’t familiar with the Nugget, it’s basically a play couch for kids that you can rearrange to be many things, and it’s made out of foam. This thing is so versatile - we have used it for a hundred million things, but never for camping! I am telling you, this was the best night’s sleep in a tent I have ever gotten. Worth every inch of van space. Worth every penny spent on that Nugget. 

After everything was set up, we took a big walk down to the lake. On the way, we found tons of native plants and late bloomers and leaves changing. Also, Mr. Middle tried to run away about sixteen times. Such is life with a two year old who took a ten minute car nap.

When we got to the lake, though…magic happened. It was sunny and warm - very nearly hot, and the kids were so excited about the water and the sand. This lake has a man-made beach, so there’s tons of sand in which to sit and dig, and it’s all surrounded by mountains AND there’s a dam, so you can hear the water rushing over it. The kids promptly stripped right down to their underwear and got soaking wet and sandy. The joy level was off the charts. The real magic though, was that Hubby and Baby B and I got to sit on a bench for an entire half an hour. Just sit. And breathe. And talk. And sit.

Some serious magic here - such peace!

Next, we found a playground which they loved, and then…we started the trek back to the tent. Mr. Middle was having a Toddler Moment, so the first half of the walk there was lots of screaming and refusing to walk, but our Big Girl saved the day by cajoling him into giggling and racing her, and then Hubby tagged in near the end and carried him on his shoulders. I had Baby B in the ergo carrier, of course.Then naturally since Mr. Middle got a ride, Big Girl wanted on my back, so I doubled up for the few dozen yards I could stagger along carrying a six-year-old on my back and a seven-month-old on my front. That was enough, though…she was satisfied just knowing I was willing.

The day went so fast! Soon it was time to build a fire and toss those foil packs on! The fire gods were with us, and it went quickly and easily, and the toddler gods were (mostly) with us, and he stayed safely back from the fire. The kids ate incredibly well; even Baby B enjoyed gnawing on an apple in his little travel high chair, so Hubby and I both got to eat with two hands - that was the second magical moment!

Love, LOVE this travel highchair! And this baby.

Then came the third and most magical moment of the daylight hours: after supper, and after lots of marshmallows were consumed, Big Girl actually asked to go to bed with her brothers. That is unheard of in our house - so unheard of I actually worried she was sick. Thankfully, she wasn’t sick, just happily tired. She told us so many times she loved the whole day and couldn’t pick a favorite part. That was worth every moment of prep and set-up.

Then we had the loveliest, snuggly moment with all three of them listening to bedtime stories together. That was pretty much everything we could have hoped for, all five of us happily snuggled in a tent reading together, watching Baby B slowly nurse himself into a coma.

Another magical moment - after a minor amount of fuss from Mr. Middle, who asked to “go back home,” all three of them went right to sleep in that cozy little tent. And then they STAYED asleep long enough for Hubby and me to sit by the fire and enjoy some stress-free marshmallows. That was the second time in one day we had sat in peace and just breathed and talked and rested. I don’t think it gets any better. We honestly don’t net that much relaxation on a normal weekend at home, so the camping magic was really strong this trip.

MAJOR magic!!!

Finally, the best magic of all was that everyone slept. Baby B slept normally, which meant he woke to nurse 4-5 times, but he never made a peep and snuggled so sweetly next to me on that Nugget all night long. Mr. Middle woke at 3ish in the morning, but he crawled right over top of his sister onto my bed and - miracle of miracles! - went immediately back to sleep and slept until 6. I only had to sneak out of the tent twice to pee, and I didn’t wake anyone.

I’m telling you, the magic abounded. 

The kids all slept until 6am, which is better than anticipated. We were prepared for them to be wide awake the second they heard the first bird. We all spent some time snuggling, and then built a breakfast fire. And then it started to rain.

You might be thinking - didn’t she say this was an extra-magical trip? Rain does not sound magical.

BUT WAIT FOR IT…!

I cooked eggs and (vegan) sausage over the fire with an umbrella in the pouring rain, and the kids decided they didn’t want to play in the rain (which is absurd, because at home it’s all they want to do), so they went and hung out in the van. Which meant that Hubby and I got to sit at the picnic table under the rain fly with Baby B who chose that moment to nap on me. We sat in PEACE, surrounded by the sight and sound of raindrops in the forest and ate arguably the best breakfast I’ve ever cooked over a fire. For a solid half an hour, Baby B slept. and the kids played nicely in the van, and we ate in peace. It was too good to be true. So that rain really was pretty magical - it gifted us with the THIRD peaceful stretch of relaxation on this tiny little brief trip. That’s kind of unreal.

Of course, then we had to pack everything up in the rain. That part wasn’t fun.

But (and this is important) we don’t go into camping weekends expecting it to be super fun or relaxing for us - often it’s neither. But ALWAYS, and I mean always…it’s worth it. When it’s all said and done (and often while it’s happening), we are so glad to have done it. The memories are glorious, the learning experiences abound, and the family bonding is like none other. Not to mention all that green space…it really seems to reset all of us. We came back from this trip like we usually come back from a camping trip: tired, extremely dirty, and very much at peace.

The sibling bonding on these trips is part of what makes it so worth it!

Have you ever camped with young children? I’m always up for new camping parenting hacks, so please share below if you have any brilliant ideas!