Camping With Kids

As a continuation of our Family Time events for this year, May was Vince's month.  For his month, he wanted us to go camping at Annapolis Rock.  He used to go with some of his buddies.  I was kind of excited about it.  And then....reality set in.  We have three children ages 14, 10, and 8.  We would have to not only hike three miles from the car before setting up camp, but we would have to carry everything with us.  This was just not feasible at all given the fact we needed stuff for five people, knowing that not all five people would actually be able to hike and carry anything.

So we decided to alter the plan a little and just go camping.  We have been talking about doing this for awhile and even purchased sleeping bags for everyone a couple years.  We gave Vince a tent for Father's Day two years ago, and we had only used it once to camp out in the backyard.  AND we got Cameron his own tent for his birthday last year as well.

I remember camping when I was a kid, in the backyard, on missions trips, and in our motor home.  I have such fond memories of running around campgrounds and playing with kids I might never see again!  I just think that it is so important to create experiences where our children have the opportunity to make memories.  When they are thirty and they think back on their childhood, they won't remember all the hours they spent sitting on the couch playing video games, they will remember the times they spent building a tent.  They will remember the time they dragged the air mattress into the public bathroom to blow it up before shoving it in the tent.  And they will even remember the time that they stood huddled around the picnic table as the it poured buckets and buckets of rain, when their campfire turned into a lake and they all crowded into the van to sleep, because they decided they hated camping.  Yes, THAT is what they will remember.

And me?  I will remember when Allison started screaming because there was a Daddy Long Leg in her hair, and how she slept in Vince's mummy sleeping bag hoping it would protect her from the bugs while Vince warned her that farting in it might suffocate her.  I will remember how we somehow or another ended up camping almost two hours away from home and yet literally two campsites away from someone Vince went to high school with!  And personally...even if the majority of the kids hate the idea of going again, I can't wait!