Things to Remember about Camping

We took our first camping trip over Spring Break... just a one nighter- kind of a practice round to see if we're up for "those" kinds of vacations. Which, given my fear of insects, Katie's intolerance of heat, and Claire's innate ability to find sticky substances and smear them all over herself, I had my serious doubts that we could handle it! Plus I'm not keen on sleeping on anything other than my pillowtop mattress. And don't get me started on using leaves to wipe... So here is what I will take away from this experience, and refer back to should we ever attempt to repeat this little adventure.


Don't eat at Sonic. After 3 hours in the car you need a little airing out and leg stretching! And for heaven's sake find a restaurant that uses plates!

Make sure Claire is asleep the entire time the tent is being assembled so she doesn't wander off and get lost.

Learn to assemble tent in less than an hour.

Don't let the most clumsy child carry the lantern. Although, a huge fiery "Pumpkin" moon can be breathtaking and cast enough of a glow to find the way back to the campsite after the lantern was rendered useless.

Roughing it shouldn't involve 2 iPods, a laptop and 2 cell phones... good grief!

S'mores are just too darn messy!

April is a perfect time to camp in the Outer Banks- no bugs are out yet!

People who are afraid of the dark should not drop their lantern/night light!

On any given trip, our van is packed up as perfectly as a Tetris board... each item having its own exact placement in the cargo area. This is Tim's area of specialty. He will spend an hour just packing the car. And then I'll say, "Whoops, I need to grab something out of that bag right there," on the bottom of the stack no doubt. So in the morning after camping, I thought I'd help out and start packing up the bags. Of course I was doing it all wrong and I heard ALL about it...