Camping 101

This past weekend we went camping in the Tonto National Forest at a place called Bear Flat. It was a nice to get away from the cacti and see pine trees and other green foliage. Clearly this is a place popular for fishing as we encountered many day visitors but managed to be the only over nighters brave enough. Or maybe its stupid enough. Either way we had a nice time together and our kids seemed to also enjoy the change of scenery.

Reggie thought it was great to be able to wander in the wilderness. So much so, that he wandered off and made friends with some of the fishermen. Don't worry, because Boo already did that for you, we found him two minutes later bouncing all around the strangers doing his best to be adopted into their family.

This is pretty much the epitome of what our kids did the whole time. Noelle thought it was cool to throw the fine-grained soil into the air to make "magic." This was not especially pleasing to the dad when she would do it next to our tent and it would waft into the windows.

The water was nice and chilly. Almost take your breath away chilly.
I'm not sure what's up with this pose, but it was all she was willing to do for a picture.

It rained pretty much all night long and so we woke up to Noelle's second favorite thing to play in, mud. Sydney managed to find any sort of rock or acorn to put in her mouth. As a result she looked like so. Stinkin' cute if you ask me.

For any friends out there thinking about going camping with small children I offer up a small list of things to consider for your trip to the wilderness.

1. Take rope. It comes in handy if you need to tie up a wandering dog or a toddler that wants to play in the fire pit.

2. Setting up the tent you had to borrow in your living room the night before sounds overly ridiculous, but helps get the eye rolling out of your system when you have to do if for real.

3. Invest in an air mattress or some other sort of sleeping pad that doesn't require MacGyver skills to inflate. If you're like us it tends to be more along the lines of MacGruber.

4. Think through every scenario so that you don't forget crucial things like plates. Its very hard to prepare any meals without plates. Or clean out a fire pit without a shovel.

5. Pack a few extra clothes for your kids and let them go wild. You will both be much happier when they occupy themselves in the dirt for long periods of time.

6. If at all possible, opt out of sleeping with the baby. And better yet opt out of baby on shared air mattress. You might find yourself airborne at some point when co-sleeper gets up in the night and you find yourself trying to make sure baby doesn't roll off, or get squished in the meantime.

7. Do not let your mind wander off into any worst case scenarios. Because that sound you hear probably isn't a murderer in the woods and you don't sleep very well.

8. Pack more food than you might actually consume in a 36 hour period. You'll all be happier that way.

9. If you have to make a quick stop at RadioShack for your trip out of town, chances are you're not going to be happy. I'm just sayin'.

10. Have a tent that is large enough for two families even if you are only a four man troupe. Having space inside the tent is essential. Save that body heat business for the Himylayas.