Establishing Traditions - Camping

Three years ago, my wife and I decided we should take our kids camping. Now I wasn't raised a camper. As I recall my childhood, we only went camping once. I was in cub scouts and the troop I was in had an overnight family camping trip. So the family packed some stuff into our Mercury Monarch, and headed out. The first obstacle we faced was a road that dipped through a stream with about 6 inches of water covering the road. My dad was a bit nervous about this water crossing, although a boy scout who was directing folks into the pasture assured us if we got a running start we could make it across. The second obstacle was that we didn't have a tent. So my mom improvised with a quilt that she hung one side in the doors of the car and staked the other side up with a couple of branches we found. The final obstacle was that the pasture we were camping in had been plowed the season before so, it was bumpy night sleep. Honestly after that adventure, I think my parents swore off camping.

As not to deprive my own children of these childhood memories, my wife and I decided to take the kids camping. We chose the Friday the kids got out of school (late May) and headed out to the nearest state park. Since we were a bite nervous about the trip, we borrowed a pop-up camper from some friends and invited my brother to come with. My brother is a mamologist and had spent many a night under the stars as he trapped small furry animals to study.

So the first year we just spent one night. The nearby state park is actually neat. It has a small pond stocked with sun fish that bite on almost anything, a swimming pool, and plenty of space for kids to walk and ride bikes. In fact on that first visit, a videographer from the State Department of Parks and Wildlife was visiting to shoot video of the park and actually miced up my oldest while we fished. The video actually aired on a short segment carried by television stations state wide.

The second year we tried two new things. First we tried tent camping, thanks to my brother who picked us up a 4 person tent. Second we tried a two night stay. This visit was the first weekend of June, and was great thanks to the pool being opened. Again the kids caught fish, they rode their bikes, and we even ran into our friends with the pop-up who were also there for the weekend.

Well this year marks our third planned visit. We are going to try to coordinate our visit with the friends with the pop-up, and we are going to bring my youngest along as well. Initially we thought about just a one night stay for the youngest, but as chance would have it, my folks will be in Spain that weekend. So the baby boy will be jumping in with both feet for the two night stay.

Honestly, I'm actually looking forward to it. It's become a good tradition to kick off the summer vacation period. We grill out over an open fire, we have a Sunday morning praise time, we fish so that everyone gets to catch a fish. It's a good way to spend the weekend before it gets too hot and before we start the mad dash of summer trips.