Back to camping!

Scott and I used to camp but have only done luxury camping since kids came into the picture.  But we thought it was high time to give it a try as a family of 6.  So, in May we camped twice, each for two nights.  It was a lot of work but so worth it.

The first trip was to a beautiful spot near a beach with Jack's cub scouts pack.  We had to rush to leave after school on a Friday to set up camp before dark.  On Saturday, I managed to take a nap (score!) with the the girls and we all spent time at the beach.  Because we were camping with a huge group (100 people) of which our kids were the youngest and meals were already planned, it didn't feel like a regular camping trip.  We never got out the stove and cooked.  And none of the kids except Jack got s'mores because they fell asleep too early.  I didn't even manage to get a photo all weekend.

So I was really excited that we had planned to go camping again two weekends later.  This time we went with 3 other families from our preschool.  We all planned our meals together and cooked together and ate together.  It was some amazing food.  Our kids had a blast riding scooters, collecting bits of nature, visiting the tidepools at the beach and just being kids outside.  On this trip I made up for the fact that I didn't take photos at the previous trip.  And here are just a few:

This trip was so much fun that immediately after getting home I contacted the whole preschool about a big camping trip in the fall.  Because things book up so quickly here, I've already reserved sites and gotten confirmation from 16 other families for Veteran's Day weekend!