Last week, I shared some of the tweaks we needed to make to our family tent camping experience. Today, I’m going to share some of the products we use, and the things we did that worked out well!
Campsite Entertainment
On our first trip, we brought three games that I think were perfect for a variety of reasons. First, we brought a giant matching game. This was fun to spread out across the camp site and play in the afternoon before dinner, and the kids can handle it on their own. We brought a kids’ Uno game, which was great for one parent to play with the kids at the picnic table while the other parent handled cooking. Finally, we brought a toss & catch game. This one was a great parent-led option. All three of these took up very minimal room, and were great for different circumstances.
I also brought bubbles and sidewalk chalk to store in our “around the campsite” tub, but we haven’t had an opportunity to use those yet!
Kids’ sleeping arrangements
We brought a fitted sheet for each twin sized air mattress, and they used their sleeping bags as blankets during our first spring time camping experience. It was relatively warm at night, but we figured getting the sleeping bags would allow them to have a different cold-weather set up as well. Since we live in South Carolina and don’t plan on doing any extreme winter camping, these sleeping bags were perfect.
Adult Bed Set Ups
On our second trip, we upgraded to cots for the adults and found yet another sleeping arrangement that we don’t love. We’ll be giving two of the kids our cots and we’ve upgraded to the Exped Megamat after getting some recommendations for our particular set up. We’ve tried it out at home and liked the feel of it. It uses both foam and air for an “optimal sleeping experience”.
Storage Containers:
Instead of fighting with the tent bag’s flimsy zipper every time, we decided to store our tent inside this container. The size wound up being perfect for three to stand on their sides inside the trunk of our minivan, so we decided to get a couple more for our other supplies. These are super durable, the lids lock down securely and also come all the way off, and they’re wheeled on one end which makes dragging them around the house while packing a breeze. They also fit nicely on top of each other when stacked.
We also bought a rooftop bag to keep the inside of our van from looking like this the next time:
Cooking Lessons Learned
On our first trip, as I mentioned, we took a regular electric griddle to do most of our cooking. We also took a lot of pre-made food since we weren’t really confident in our outdoor cooking abilities. We learned that for our family, its best to eat something easy the first night, so we didn’t have to stress about getting all the cooking stuff or fire set up when we were trying to set up the rest of the campsite. The same is true on the morning we leave…we don’t want to have to wash all of our cooking equipment as part of the pack-up process, so we find that is best done the night before, and eating pre-made food for our final breakfast is helpful.
We used a Coleman camping stove on the last two trips and we are in love! Andrew is the camping chef and cooks scrambled eggs with ham & cheese for breakfasts, hot dogs, and hamburgers so far. We decided that for now, we will just be using our fire for fun & marshmallows, and not cooking meals with it, but we’re opening to trying some meals cooked over the fire when the kids get a little older.
Camping is an Ongoing Learning Experience!
As soon as we pull out of our campsite and hit the highway pointed toward home, Andrew and I always work on our “after action report” so we can jot down ideas while they’re fresh in our memories. We’ve learned from each trip we’ve taken to make our next one even better!
So far, we have visited…
Chester State Park
Linville Falls Campground
Hunting Island State Park
Where should we go next?!
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