New To Camping

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Camping
00:33 First Camping Trip
01:27 Camping in Different Locations
02:28 Camping with Kids
03:04 Challenges and Improvements
04:23 Mixed Feelings about Camping
05:23 Exploring Historical Sites
06:23 Camping as the Main Experience
07:46 Family Bonding and Activities
08:47 Kids' Independence and Camping in the Backyard
09:52 Camping with Teens
10:51 Bringing Bikes and Wheelie Things
11:20 Different Types of Campsites
12:38 Preparing Food for Camping
15:09 Easy Meals and Separate Camping Dishes
17:06 Prepping Food at Home
18:00 Organizing Camping Gear
19:13 Essential Items and Paper Towels
20:08 Educational Opportunities
21:19 Bringing Bikes and Scooters
22:11 Preparing for Bad Weather
23:09 Waterproofing Tents
24:14 Memorable Camping Experiences
25:06 Games and Entertainment
26:09 Waterproofing and Tarp
27:15 Favorite Parts of the Trip
28:22 Ending the Trip with Ice Cream

Camping can be another form of entertainment to have with the kids. It’s not for everyone, but we really enjoy it. Today we are going to talk a little about the details of camping and what fun we have had with it over the years. 

To start it doesn’t have to be that hard.

Talk a little about the first times we went camping.Choose a location of interest

Picking a good camping spot. Depends on family interests, water spots for older kids, near the playground for younger. 

Planning for when you bring the kids.  I like to create excitement around the trip

   Food

   Gear (tent , cots, clothes storage in the tent/car) Consider borrowing some of the more expensive things to see if you like it.

   Location and time of year

FOOD!

Making it easier while camping by preparing food at home.

Plan for easy meals-whatever that looks like for you. 

With summer quickly approaching, we are starting to think about all the summer fun we plan for this year. Topping the list for us is our favorite warm weather get away!! Camping can be an extravagant glamping expedition or a simple tent and bonfire adventure. We definitely lean toward simplicity.

We discussed our experiences over the years. The experience changes as your kids get older and can help make it happen more. When your kids are younger, it is harder because they have a limited ability to help. But as they get older and can help with the set up, take down and food prep it becomes less work and more fun.

Big Announcement Coming!

Make sure and check back in on Wednesday! We have big changes coming for our podcast. We are going to mix up a few things we're doing to make it more fun.

Have you heard our episode on warm weather meals. You're going to need to eat while camping. Listen to this episode HERE to get a few ideas.

Transcript

Transcript

Ellyn (00:04.865)

Camping can be another form of entertainment to have with the kids. It's not for everyone, but we really enjoy it. Today we're going to talk a little about the details of camping and what fun we have had over the years. First of all, it doesn't have to be that hard. Really. Our first camping trip was so blissfully simple. Of course, it rained really hard and we got wet. But besides that, it was very simple. We had a tent.

Lauren (00:23.507)

Yeah, that's it.

Ellyn (00:33.901)

The campsite came with a picnic table and we had gotten a camp stove. That was really, we had air mattresses too. But that was it. We've kind of gone up in our needs over the years, but that first trip was so simple. It was just mostly stuff we already had.

Lauren (00:52.755)

Mm -hmm.

Lauren (00:58.451)

Yep. We  did camping at all the state parks in Georgia. And actually, I think we hit almost all of them. Okay. No, that's ridiculous. We didn't hit almost all of them. We hit a real lot of them though. And we also camped in Florida and Tennessee just as a couple. And back then it was really, really simple. We did not have a camp stove. We made a fire in the little camp thingy that was sometimes just a circle of stones at the campground and we we didn't even bring food like Ellyn I think you started camping with the kids didn't you? So our first camping trips were just me and Steve and and we really went

Ellyn (01:43.404)

Yes, we did. 

Lauren (01:59.027)

small on it. Like we did bring an air mattress because yeah, I'm not sleeping on the ground, but we didn't bring, like we brought a whole bunch of dried food to eat, like beef jerky and peanuts and, and trail mix and like that kind of stuff instead of real food. Yeah. We really didn't bring that much. That's when we went camping with a tent, an air mattress and clothes. I can't think of anything else. Water. We brought water. But, you know,  our needs progressed with the kids. We had to have more things when we started bringing them with us.

Ellyn (02:37.929)

You guys definitely went more bare bones than we did, but we had kids.

Lauren (02:53.235)

I don't know if you guys know this, but kids don't like to just live on beef jerky.

Ellyn (02:58.665)

Really?

Lauren (03:00.595)

Not at all. Yeah, they definitely require something more than that.

Ellyn (03:04.489)

Our first trip and we did go bare -bones but it did require a trip to Walmart halfway through the trip because we didn't have that first trip we didn't have any sort of coverage besides our tent which was a good tent and it did keep us dry when we were in it But we wanted to leave our tent and it rained and rained and rained

Lauren (03:31.603)

Sometimes.

Ellyn (03:38.088)

We did. And so we sat in our tent for a while and, I'm like, this is the dumbest thing ever. Let's go to Walmart. So in the middle of our camping trip, we left and went to Walmart and bought an easy up, which for anybody who isn't a camper, doesn't know it's just a canopy that goes over the top. And then we sat under our canopy, our easy up for the rest of that day. I'm surprised  when I was able to talked my husband into going camping again after that first trip. We've had many a good camping trips since then but that first one that was a little rough.

Lauren (04:24.979)

Yeah. I started camping when I was just a kid and you talking about Jason made me think of this. It was me that brought up the let's go camping thing. And it was me that was excited about it. And my husband who was like, okay, guess we can go.

Ellyn (04:49.254)

That was Jason too. He was never super excited about this, especially when the kids were little and they couldn't help a whole lot. It was just work. There was a lot of work involved. Are we selling camping to our listeners? I have a feeling we're not. It's fun!

Lauren (05:02.491)

Yeah.

Lauren (05:09.779)

Well, it is fun. We always had a great time. And I was going to say we went to all the state parks because they all had historical meaning. Like we were there for the historical background of the area. So camping was kind of like a secondary thing or the reason that we were doing it was because it was it was less expensive than a hotel. But we really went for like in Georgia, there's this awesome place called the Kalamoke Mounds. You guys should go there. But anyway, it's  almost like a pyramid in Georgia.

Ellyn (05:46.981)

Heheheheh

Lauren (05:54.483)

And it's, it dates back like hundreds of years when it was built and they've dug it all up and okay, I'm going to stop talking about it, but it's an awesome thing. We went to that campground several times and I think it's underrated. Why don't people talk about it more? But they don't. But we went to lots of campgrounds like that in Georgia that had like a historical significance and you know, hiked all around and looked at all the things that they had and it is exciting. I just like vacationing like that. I like seeing things that are more local thanhaving to go all the way to Europe or Mexico or Canada.  It's right here. There's so many interesting things right around where you live.

Ellyn (06:48.066)

Very true. Yep, there are. And we camp like that sometimes, but for my family, camping is the experience most of the time. We'll go and take excursions out to do things sometimes, but more often than not, when my big kids were little, we camped to camp. So we would find a beautiful state park or a beautiful campground and we would spend most of our time there. And when my big kids, so before my youngest was born,  so my big kids were a little bit older, our favorite thing to do was to find a state park that was on water and we could get a water site so that we could fish and swim right off of our own campsite. When they got a little bit older, we got kayaks so that we could go out on the water together. The experience was to be camping. And I just loved it. It was such great family time, you know, because you turn off all your devices, you put everything away. The food is an experience that you cook together and you go for walks. And it's just, I loved it. I loved camping with my big kids when they were in the, I would say six to 12 range, because they enjoyed it so much.

Lauren (08:21.137)

Right. They like it because you're all sleeping right there in the same tent together. And then when they get a little bit older, they get to sleep in their own tent, which is a new kind of exciting thing for them. And I remember feeling that too, when I was a kid, because at first,  my camping was in the backyard.

Ellyn (08:28.852)

Mm -hmm.

Ellyn (08:38.05)

Right. Yep.

Lauren (08:48.915)

Um, and I, I actually did it more often than not because it was hot inside the house and I wanted to be not hot. So I would pitch my tent and sleep outside.

Ellyn (08:59.681)

I don't think I ever did that the whole time I was growing up. I didn't have a tent.

Lauren (09:06.675)

Grandma gave me the tent that Dad grew up with.

Ellyn (09:12.737)

Oh nice!

Lauren (09:14.899)

It was not waterproof and it didn't have a bottom. So I was sleeping in the grass in my sleeping bag. It was. Oh man. Those were good times.

Ellyn (09:18.016)

But it was nice and cool, I bet.

Ellyn (09:30.131)

Yeah.

Lauren (09:33.203)

But I know when we have let the kids sleep in their tent outside at their grandma and grandpa's house, they like it. Because it's like a new level of maturity for them that they've reached that they get to sleep in a tent by themselves.

Ellyn (09:43.901)

Mm -hmm.

Ellyn (09:49.759)

Great. It's their own space. They can do with it whatever they want. I know for my teens, in the summertime, we almost always do a big trip to our parents' house and everybody camps. And so we call it tent city. And the big kids each get their own tent. And last year, Lauren's two older kids each got their own tent. And so and then all the adults, you all get a tent that I'm happy to share with my husband and Lauren shares with her husband of course. But there's a lot of tents. And they get to decorate, I guess, however they want to. And so it is, it's exciting for them to hit that level where they get their own space. And it's a lot of fun. We have a good time.

Lauren (10:29.299)

and the dog. Right.

Lauren (10:42.547)

Mm -hmm.

Lauren (10:51.027)

Yep, it is fun. But then you also have the opportunity to go to a camp ground. And I don't know if you guys know this, but there's different kinds of camping experience. You can get a campsite that has water and electricity, which is the kind I prefer, honestly. Or you can get one that's called, oh, what's it called?

Ellyn (11:12.702)

Me too.

Ellyn (11:20.222)

Primitive.

Lauren (11:22.035)

Primitive camping and that's where you don't have water or electricity or a bathroom

Ellyn (11:29.022)

Yeah, I was gonna say, primitive is... you don't have any amenities. And I don't... I've actually never camped like that.

Lauren (11:34.387)

now.

Lauren (11:38.259)

Well, primitive campsites, you can find those on the same campground as the ones with electric and water. And so you had the bathroom too.

Ellyn (11:48.382)

Oh, okay. That's not my definition of primitive. Primitive is nothing. You go and you hack down the weeds and pitch your tent. That's primitive.

Lauren (11:57.459)

Well, they call it primitive. Like at those campgrounds, do you want an electric site or do you want a primitive site?

Ellyn (12:06.494)

Oh, not in my state they don't.

Lauren (12:10.163)

Oh, well, I guess it depends on where you live. But I actually have stayed on a primitive site in a campground that had bathrooms. So we didn't have electricity or water on the actual site, but we were able to walk up to the bathroom and, you know, refill our water and go to the bathroom and take a shower.

Ellyn (12:12.156)

No.

Ellyn (12:22.622)

Yes.

Ellyn (12:38.47)

Mm -hmm. It really is. And that's honestly, that's usually where we end up saying, because I think the sites are nicer on non -electric sites. The electric sites tend to be more for campers and RVs. And so they usually aren't don't have as good of shade cover. In my experience, of course, you know, every campground is different. But in my experience,

Lauren (12:38.547)

That really, that's the most important thing.

Lauren (12:51.441)

Mm -hmm, they are.

Lauren (12:58.035)

Exactly.

Ellyn (13:06.814)

The electric sites tend to be a little bit more out in the open because they need room to park a camper on it. So we tend to go more toward the non -electric sites because in our favorite campgrounds, at least, you really can't get to the water unless you're using a tent. The best, in my opinion, campsites are the ones down by the water and there's no way to get a camper down there. So those are the non -electric sites.

Lauren (13:11.059)

Mm -hmm.

Lauren (13:33.331)

Totally. Yep. And they're always primitive. I think it's also because they sometimes there's floods and they don't want their electricity flooding.

Ellyn (13:36.766)

Yeah.

Ellyn (13:47.194)

Right. Yep.

Lauren (13:49.747)

So the best sites, I mean, depending on the time of year you want to keep in mind whether there's been flooding in your area, the best sites are always down by the water. You wake up, you come out of your tent to no coffee pot. So how do you do that?

Ellyn (14:10.074)

We use a French press.

Lauren (14:14.195)

Oh, over there.

Ellyn (14:14.521)

You know, my husband is the biggest coffee snob and I'm so thankful because he always gets up before me when we camp. And by the time I get up, the French press is done. And I actually kind of time it that way because I can hear him boiling water and I can hear him pouring. So it's like, it's on purpose that I don't get up. But by the time I get up, the coffee's done.

Lauren (14:19.763)

I know.

Ellyn (14:42.233)

And all I have to do is sit in my chair and drink my coffee. And it's just such a happy time because the kids are still all asleep. They don't want to get up yet. And I sit and if I if we're lucky enough to get a water site, I watch the water. If sometimes there's boats you can look at and I just love it. I love the camp.

Lauren (14:53.363)

Right.

Lauren (14:59.697)

Mm -hmm. Those are the best.

Lauren (15:07.603)

Yeah, my kids are always up and they have to be walked to the bathroom. So yeah, I'm not getting any of that French press coffee with the quiet time yet at the camping site. All right, people, let's talk food. For us, now that we have the kids, we, I usually make something that's easy to reheat over a fire. I've made pizza casserole and just put it like kind of close to the fire so it heated up and I froze it and put it in the in the cooler to keep everything else cool and I've done that with all kinds of food.

Ellyn (15:55.19)

I like to do that with marinated chicken. So you prepare the chicken, you know, trim it and all that, and then you put it in a marinade and then freeze it solid. And then the morning you leave, you take it out of the freezer and put it in your cooler. It keeps everything else cold. But not that night, but the following night, it's all thawed out and ready to throw on whatever your heating source is. If you doing it over a fire is perfect for the fire or on your camp stove however and that is amazing it's so good and easy we

Lauren (16:32.915)

Everyone appreciates a good meal at the end of a long hike.

Ellyn (16:38.003)

Of course. We also try to make as much of our food as at home before we leave as we can because I'd much rather work in my own kitchen than I would out on a picnic table at a campground. It's just not as comfortable. So any like vegetable prep, all that stuff, I do all that at home and then just stick it in bags and throw it in the cooler and then we can have it whatever night we're having that meal. Another really good thing to make at home is mac and cheese that you can just heat up. We actually have that beside that chicken or sausages or something. Hot dogs and sausages, really good camping food because it's just easy. You know, you throw it in your cooler.

Lauren (17:14.779)

Mm -hmm.

Lauren (17:31.825)

Mm -hmm. I like to keep a few separate dishes, uh, because if you are using your, a fire, it, things are gonna get dirtier than they normally would. So if you don't have a camping stove, which I didn't for a long time, I didn't get a camping stove until, until we had kids. So we cooked everything over a fire. So I had a few pots that I kept separate just for camping. And they were a little lower quality than the ones that I like that I have at home. Because they are going to get dirty in a way that they won't ever get undirty.

Ellyn (18:16.753)

Yes.

Ellyn (18:20.786)

Right, they get a soot on them. That's really, really hard to get off. So, yep, that's a really good idea to have a separate. We're to the point now where we have a whole separate camping kitchen. So everything we take camping, it never goes back to our home kitchen. We just clean that stuff all up, put it away. And that also makes camping easier next time. If camping is as easy as just grabbing a few things and packing clothes. It's so much more doable on a whim than if you have to unload half your kitchen to do it. And so kitchen, house, whatever. So we over the years have gotten to where we have shelves in our basement that hold our camping gear.

Lauren (18:47.411)

It does.

Ellyn (19:13.488)

and is ready to go when we get back from camping. We clean it all up, we dry it all out and put it all away so that the next time we go camping, it's already just set and ready for us to go take it camping.

Lauren (19:26.919)

Yep, I have, I do that too. I even have a thing of paper towels in there that just stays in there because I forgot paper towels once. And that was bad. I know now that that thing of paper towel lives in there.

Ellyn (19:35.836)

Then you never will again.

Ellyn (19:43.312)

Hehehe.

Lauren (19:46.387)

Take the opportunity while you're camping to do some education. This is honestly not something I have done before, but I think I'm going to give it a whirl the next time that we camp. And that's bring a bird book, bug book, some kind of plant book, mushroom book, mushroom book. I need a mushroom book. And, you know, talk, talk about it. And I've been doing this with the kids to a limited extent at, at home with plants. I always try and tell them what all the plants we see are that are out in the yard and the same with bugs and birds. But when you go to a different place and, and a campground is less. Like there's still people around, but it's not the same as living in a neighborhood there's just not as much distraction, I guess, so they have different animals, different bugs, different everything. So it's an opportunity to see some new stuff and talk about it with the kids.

Ellyn (20:55.28)

Definitely. Bring, if you're able, bring their bikes or whatever wheelie things they have. My oldest always brought his skateboard because it didn't take up very much room. And then my older daughter always brought her ccooter, razor scooter, whatever they're called. Because again, it didn't take up hardly any room. And this is the first year we'll be camping with our youngest. We took her when she was a baby, but we haven't had a chance to get back since. So she'll probably want to bring some sort of wheelie thing for herself.

Lauren (21:23.985)

Mm -hmm.

Lauren (21:39.635)

I know, we always bring all the scooters.

Ellyn (21:41.776)

Yep. And because at least around here, the campgrounds are usually asphalt, the paths are all asphalt. So it's super fun for them to just be able to fly on ahead on their scooter. When my big kids were a little bit older, I would actually let them loose on the campground as long as the loops were not too far away and I can still see them or hear them. We would just turn them loose on the loops and, It's really fun. They feel a sense of freedom in being able to do that, of course.

Lauren (22:23.059)

Prepare for bad weather! Now Ellen talked a little bit about her first camping trip. I went on, and this wasn't my first camping trip, but we went on a trip one time with Steve's family and we brought our air mattress and our tent and our clothes and some food and forgot our blankets.

Ellyn (22:24.879)

Yes.

Lauren (22:49.075)

And it just so happens that this was the one and only time that it got down in the thirties in Georgia. We were so cold. We each thought the other had grabbed the bag of blankets and they were just sitting right next to our bed at home all alone.

Ellyn (23:08.545)

It's a good thing.

Lauren (23:12.027)

Even the dog was cold.

Ellyn (23:14.83)

If we actually, Walmart makes a lot of money on us when we go camping, I'm realizing. Yeah.

Lauren (23:20.083)

Yeah, we, we went to Walmart. We went to Walmart and got some blankets because after the first night I was like, we're going to freeze right to death. We don't do something. So we went and got blankets.

Ellyn (23:28.014)

Hehehe

Yep. We did that once too. We, but we remembered blankets, but it got particularly cold our first night and we said the same thing. We're not doing that again. So we went to Walmart and bought a blanket for ourselves. Other nice to haves, maybe better than nice to haves are, is a tarp.

Lauren (23:45.203)

Right.

Ellyn (23:57.216)

You can actually fashion the tarp right over your tent if your waterproofing isn't as good as you thought your water proofing was. I know this because I've done it. And as long as the wind doesn't blow too hard, the tarp will keep you dry.

Lauren (24:06.387)

you

Lauren (24:15.763)

We have an experience with that too.

Ellyn (24:17.869)

Yeah.

Lauren (24:21.267)

Didn't we, you and I were camping once when the tent, no, it was the tent and it was really, really windy and it kept blowing the tent and like this, it was so loud.

Ellyn (24:34.125)

It would go up into the air by 15 feet and then slam down on the top of the tent. It was the worst. Again, selling camping to our listeners.

Lauren (24:43.811)

WUMP! The Phantom! Oh man, it was so bad. I don't think either of us slept a wink. I know! That tent went back. It was the tent's fault.

Ellyn (24:58.093)

It was the tent's fault. It was a new tent and it did not do tenting very well. If you're taking kids camping, even if you're not, bring some games. There's always downtime when you're camping, which is one of the greatest things about camping. But especially if you have kids, they're not going to be happy for very long just sitting around staring at the fire. So bring a couple of games. They are.

Lauren (25:06.299)

No.

Lauren (25:22.191)

And games are so fun! You can just bring some card games. Yeah, it's a fun thing to do.

Ellyn (25:30.381)

Farkel is a fun game to take camping because you can get a little bitty Farkel and it's good for hours of entertainment. If you've never heard of Farkel, it's a dice game that's really, really fun that we bought while we were camping. Not at Walmart.

Lauren (25:45.811)

Totally. Waterproofing. There is a spray that you can buy to spray on your tent and we keep a can of it in our camping gear. It goes with us every single time we go camping, just in case, you know, things aren't quite as good as we thought it was going to be.

Ellyn (26:04.971)

That's really smart.

Ellyn (26:09.427)

Hehehehe

Lauren (26:12.197)

Yep, you just spray it on and it adds a layer of waterproofing to your tent. There's a limited number of times that you can do that before it just doesn't work anymore, but I honestly, I haven't reached that point yet.

Ellyn (26:26.827)

We did. We reached that point. That's it. No more waterproofing is going to work here. You're just going to get wet if you keep using this tent. So we bought a new one.

Ellyn (26:46.601)

And once your trip is over and you've packed up all your things and everybody's good and tired and you are on your way home, take a few minutes in the car on the way home while you all smell smoky and you're kind of gross because you didn't shower and you cleaned up camp. Take some time to talk about your favorite parts of the trip. Your kids’ favorite part is going to be some obscure thing that you didn't think twice about. But for them it was memorable. And those are always the best conversations because they're like, oh, that weird bug that was on that tree. That was my favorite part. Really?

Lauren (27:27.155)

I know, we actually had that a few years ago. It was worms. We went to a campground that had those weird jumping worms.

Ellyn (27:31.113)

Oh really? Maybe you told me.

Ellyn (27:38.281)

Oh my word, that was their favorite part?

Lauren (27:41.715)

That was our favorite part because they were such squiggly little worms. I was like, ew, this is disgusting. I'm going home.

Ellyn (27:48.457)

I'm sorry.

Lauren (27:52.091)

But yep, that was her favorite part.

Ellyn (27:53.385)

And if you want to make the trip extra special and just top it off with a cherry, stop for ice cream on the way home. It's something we almost always do. We're smoky and gross and stinky and we go get ice cream and we don't care. We have a good time. And that ends up being one of the favorite parts of the trip usually.

Lauren (28:22.023)

Camping may not be a dream vacation, but it's definitely a fun vacation. Over the years, we've saved so much money and had such a nice camp time camping with the kids. And they love the experience. Until next time.