We are planning on doing some camping this summer, so we recently purchased a tent! Our old tent was ruined in the great flood of 2010, and it wouldn’t have held five people anyway.
We were all pretty excited about the tent, so we decided to do a test run in the living room. We moved the couches out of the way, but it was too big. We were whacking walls and windows and pictures with the poles. It’s giant. So, no tent in the living room. It caused great disappointment among the littles when we decided to wait and set it up outside the next morning.
The evening after we set up the tent, a big storm came in. The tent was subjected to lots of rain and strong winds, and it didn’t leak or tear! So I guess it is a pretty good tent for our purposes. (It’s the Coleman Montana 8 if you are wondering.)
I’ve been soliciting advice from friends and family about camping with kids, and everyone has been so helpful. Besides the usual kid-craziness, I think our biggest problem may be how to get all of our equipment in and on our car, which isn’t huge. I’m looking at either the Sherpak or the Rightline Saddlebag. I’ve even toyed with the idea of getting both.
Looking at camping equipment is so fun! It reminds me of Girl Scout camp, which I only attended once and was plagued by shyness the entire time. But the equipment? The canteens? The little metal cups? The name tags in your shirts? That stuff was great. (Can you tell I’m a camping novice?)
Do you have any camping tips?
Yippee!
We have so much gear- if you want to borrow something, let me know. Just ask and I bet we have it!
Thanks for the offer, Alicia! I need to get our storage situation figured out so I know how much we can even take. The one thing I’m on the fence about is a camping stove. Considering that Elise doesn’t even like cooked foods very much (PICKY), I wonder if we’d be better off with just raw foods. Still thinking.
go with the camp stove. it doesn’t take up *that* much room, and trust me, you’ll want it – if only for the coffee. Hot water for washing up is also a necessity.
Everything seems so necessary. 🙂 I will have 14 cu ft in a carrier, and about 12 cu ft in the car next to Charlotte in the third row. No trunk.
holy smokes, look at that tent!
confession: i have never been camping. never. (i’m so allergic to the outdoors, i never seriously considered even trying.)
(unless you count girl scout camp. which kinda counts. even tho i chickened out at the overnight stay. some of those girls were evil.)
Yeah, I’m hoping the allergy shots will be kicking in a little by summer.