its crazy to go camping

A couple weeks ago our friends the Vandewegs let it spill that they are campers. This tidbit of info got gears turning and before you know it we were planning our first camping trip. Jennifer found the spot, Eric supplied most of the gear (we didn't own a tent and weren't sure if this would ever happen again :). I had no clue what to pack so we didn't bring much. Clothing, sleeping bags, 2 baby carriers of course (my babyhawk and beau's trusty framepack), a cooler full of food and last but certainly not least diapers!! We loaded up all our stuff, 7 kids, 4 adults and a dog and headed out of town. We camped about half an hour outside of the city, a little bit passed Castle Rock, Colorado. The view was spectacular (almost as nice as ours in Colorado Springs) and there was even a train which ran across the bottom of the mountain every hour or so. This made Pearce super happy!

We got a great spot, kinda down in a hole, nestled in some trees. We had four tents. Eric and Jenn and their girls all bunked in a big one. Beau and I and our two smallest boys had one. Paxton and Piper had another, and Parker had one we nicknamed "The Snuggletent" all to himself.


Notice there is something hanging in the tree :) That was my wet bag, I use at home to store dirty dipes, then tote them to the wash. All we had was cloth diapers, and I didn't really know how it would work out, but i planned to cloth diaper at the campsite :) Shortly before we left i discovered a side pocket on my wet bag. This was perfect for storing all the clean dipes, and of  course the main pocket has a waterproof lining to store the dirties. It was super easy, totally cute, and perfect. A must have for cloth diaper campers!!!

The guys did a great job setting up camp. We decided to go explore a bit. We found some other campers playing bingo, and joined in. We also stumbled upon a playground which of course could not go ignored! The Jellystone campground play area wins the award for the best playground view. Not only are the mountains gorgeous, but the train is a super bonus! Shortly afterwards we found a hayride and climbed on.Here is Pike, enjoying the ride from his babyhawk :) There was lots of this....leading up to alot of thiswinning Pearce the award for dirtiest kid at camp. This was one of his cleanest looks. He was drawn like a magnet to any abandoned fire pit and if you wiped him down, he only managed to use his dampness to his advantage....roll in the dirt after a good wipedown and it sticks much better. I quickly gave up lol.

We did a few smores experiments. Of course the classic hershey smore is fabulous, but a reese's peanut butter cup smore is pretty amazing!! and according to Eric, a York Peppermint patty smore is pretty good too!

We decided to ditch the hayride and walk back to our campsite. We are tough wilderness explorers after all. Baby toting fivefingered ones of course :)all in all , camping really wasnt that hard to do will all the kids. I expected much worse. It was definitely a crazy adventure, and I definitely didnt pack enough (Praise the Lord, Jennifer did!!) but there were no disasters and we even found a practical use for Beaus framepack it does a great job as a high chair, and keeps a crawler safely away from the fire pit in a pinch :)

We had an amazing time and bonded with some great friends while exploring our fabulous new state Now to begin the purchase of camping gear. After watching the family that had ten kids in their ginormous luxury tent, im thinking that is the way to go. Beau is looking more for easy assembly and votes for multiple smaller ones??? what do u think?

I always envisioned camping in a luxury RV alone on a romantic journey with the hubster. Never did i ever think id be camping tent style with 5 kiddos in tow but man .....now I cant imagine not doing it again soon!!