We Love Camping…..Kind of!

I’m trying to learn to love tent camping again, but for the last 3 years we have had an RV.  We sold the RV last year and decided we could become tent campers again…like we were when we had ONLY 3 kids.  I don’t remember who’s idea this was….but I guess I agreed to it. Now with 7 of us, I felt like it would be an impossible task.  With only a mini van and no hitch or roof racks I did not think we could fit.  But guess what??  My Tetris loving husband and kids made it so we fit everything in PLUS an air mattress for me!  For part of my 40 x 40 for my birthday I made a goal to go tent camping 6 times this year as a family.  That more than we have gone in the last 6 years! 🙂  I know, call us boring, but RVing is sooooo easy and camping isn’t.  Let’s just say it how it is!  Coolers, food, bedding, padding, hammocks, chairs, canopy, lighting and a tent is so much to pack.  But somehow miraculously we fit it all in our van.  We got a very large tent on Amazon that I love!!  My family teased that we packed the Taj Mahal!

I have to tell you real quick before I get into all the cool places that we have been this summer, about this awesome light kit called Ultimate Survival Kit by Vont.  They create inexpensive gadgets and the kit comes with a 2 Pack Flashlight + 2 Pack Headlamp + 2 Pack LED Camping Lantern. It is a perfect kit for our family.  My kids love the headlamp sand lanterns the most!! They love using them as they are going to bed to read or head to the bathroom.  We also used them on a night hike a few weeks ago!

OK, now I will tell you about the 3 camping trips we have done so far and the 3 I have planned!

The first trip was in Idaho with our friends that had an RV… :/  They let us use their tent and it was super fun. We stayed in Heise near Rexburg, Idaho. We went to some beautiful waterfalls, Rafted down a slow flowing river and laughed a ton, and then went into Yellowstone on a rainy day!  The company was the best part and the kids had a great time!The next trip we went on was just two weeks later. My family planned a family reunion.  We stayed 2 nights up American Fork Canyon in Utah at a place called Timpooneke Campground. Everyone tent camped. We had a blast.  My favorite part was a beautiful hike we went on.  I am hoping to Hike Mount Timp next month and we did a small portion of the hike. It got me exited to take on the whole mountain.  The next campout was up Logon canyon at Camp Lomia…. again, just 2 weeks after the last one.  We were on a camping roll! 🙂   This place was gorgeous!  It is a camp owned by the Church and was beautiful! with a huge grass field and no dirt! 🙂  Our next campout is Deer Haven up Cedar Mountain in a couple of weeks! Then we will just have 2 more to do!  I have a few ideas, but I’m not 100% sure.  We are headed to Moab in September and I think we might camp a night there.  In the fall I think it would be fun to go to Valley of Fire in Nevada.  Not having our RV has been hard. It takes a lot more planning and prepping, but tent camping hasn’t been two bad, in fact it really hasn’t been bad….well except for the night our air mattress deflated!  Thankfully we got a new one!  I am proud of my kids. They have not complained once about not having the RV anymore, and they like camping!