Tent Camping with Kids for the Novice Camper

Like most parents, we wanted our kids to have lasting childhood memories of roasting marshmallows and eating S'mores around a campfire.

After weeks of anticipation, van loaded, and five anxious children, we were off on our first family camp out in our new tent.

Looking back, arriving before dark in an unfamiliar campground with new equipment would be smart. We located our campsite and with eager enthusiasm proceeded to unload, including wood for three campfires, our campground would not allow wood cutting or gathering. Setting up a new tent in the dark was amusing, good thing I am married to a man who can assemble anything without reading the instructions.

I laid down with the little ones as our two older daughters and daddy looked over the campground map and discussed plans for the following day.

I soon heard a low whisper at the door of the tent. "Honey, I think we're in the wrong campsite." Silence. "Honey are you awake?" Sitting up, I asked if he was kidding, trying to keep my voice low. As he headed to the campground office to inquire about switching our camp number, the group who reserved the spot we occupied were attempting to pull in.

Have you ever bought a packaged item and then had to return it? It took three trips to transport "our" campsite, wood and sleeping children included.

Once all of our belongings were moved we were exhausted. We collapsed in the tent falling asleep immediately. Suddenly we were startled from slumber by loud clanging and rattling. Hearts pounding, we huddled at the tent screen shining our shaking light on our intruder. Did you know that raccoons have amazing dexterity and that plastic containers should be kept in the van at night?

At daylight we discovered the cinnamon rolls we planned for breakfast had vanished and the hoagie rolls for lunch were found half eaten on a morning walk. The upside, a family of five armadillos were also observed on their morning walk and apparently raccoons do not like chocolate, and our kids got their first taste of graham crackers with a toasted marshmallow and a slab of Hershey's chocolate.