Our First Family Camping Trip, Campsite Life

Planning.  Packing.  Prepping.  Camping calls for a lot of all three.

But the day arrived, and ready or not, here we went…

Of course, as HUGE fans of the Hunger Games Series, it was time to take the rest of the crew to District 12.  Only my oldest daughter and I had been there and it was on the way to our campsite destination.

And two hours later, we were setting up camp!

Our campground, Davidson River, was a random find through google searches.  It was in the ideal location, near Brevard, NC,  based on the hikes we wanted to take.  We were thrilled with how pleasant the campground was and how ideal our particular site was.

Hot dogs were our first official camping meal as well as our last meal on this trip!  Hot dogs are just an easy dinner while camping; it was such fun to cook them over the fire.  Our second night dinnertime meal consisted of grill cheese sandwiches and soup.  Soup turned out perfect for night number two because it was rainy!

After dinner activities consisted of marshmallow roasting. Smores.  Mountain Pies.  Popcorn.  Fire watching.  And games by lantern light.

I’ll be honest.  My first night of sleeping was not good.  Hot and sticky are not the words I use when I describe the ideal sleeping environment.  On top of that, one of my children couldn’t sleep either and was keeping me up.  Finally, at 1 AM we both took Benadryl and finally drifted off.  The next morning, our first stop was Walmart for some battery powered fans.  The next two nights were much more pleasant.

Breakfast went smoothly each morning.  Two mornings included eggs and sausage and the remaining morning consisted of pancakes and fruit.

Obviously, we also had to buy one little girl a hoodie sweatshirt at Walmart when we stopped by for fans.  She forgot hers and was trying to make due with paper towels on the chilly morning.

These hammocks (below) were fabulous sources of relaxation, fun and entertainment.  Sitting around the campsite and relaxing was possible due to these two person hammocks.  We purchased two of them, so they accommodated all four kids.  They had a blast relaxing, playing, and learning to hang upside down in them!

Our one mistake was purchasing a screen canopy that was just too small for our family of 6.  When the rain came, we added this blue tarp to help keep everyone and everything dry.  In the end, we just made it work and went with it.  We were dry and cozy under it!

Our three room, 6 person Coleman tent (from a purchase over a decade ago) held up beautifully, even through all of the rain.  We were pleasantly surprised.

While we didn’t have a ton of extra space, the six of us fit comfortably, two in each room.

Part of the fun in the evening was giggling and talking at night until it was time to go to sleep.  Our kids really enjoyed being in a tent with us and we enjoyed them.  It added to the novelty of the entire weekend as well as the family bonding and silliness.

We had a wonderful three days, full of adventures and experiences that I will make time to record here.  In the end were all sad to leave and we can’t wait to do it again.  I would say that camping was a great success!

How about you?  Have you taken your kids on a camping trip?  How did it go?

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Mary Wilson

Mary is a writer and mother to four kids ranging from elementary to high school.

She believes that creativity, laughter, and fun are the backbone for engaging and inspiring homeschools. You can find her encouragement and tips on this blog, Mary Hanna Wilson.

She is an enneagram 7 and an extrovert. She enjoys traveling, tea (iced or hot), good conversations, and books. You can connect with her on Instagram and Facebook.

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