Laundry is going, bins have been pulled out of the garage, and we are T minus 24 hours until it’s time to camp! This will be the first multiple night camping trip we’ve taken with Kai, and since its in conjunction with a board game convention, everyone is especially excited.

We are basically going glamping sans the really glamorous part. We’re taking a eight person tent, a bed, bed linens, and rugs because my husband does not do outside. In fact, he claims that sleeping outside gives him a hangover (well, with our current pollen count he might be right). It seems like a lot of stuff, but it does really end up being a minimal campsite for the car camping style. (Of course, I like to backpack, so  I’m also perfectly happy setting up camp out of a 33 liter pack. I’ve also done full scale historical recreation camping with canvas tents and four poster beds that requires a trailer. There is a really huge range of  what you need for sleeping outside.)

Be prepared. It really should be the mom motto, but especially when you are off adventuring somewhere that you don’t have all the conveniences of home. Think about what you’ll need. Make a list. Check to make sure you have everything. Then start packing. All of this should, in an ideal world, happen at least two days before you leave in case you find out that your tent needs to be re-waterproofed (it did) or you ate all the chocolate for s’mores (we did – Pro tip, replace those boring chocolate bars with peanut butter cups for extra amazing s’mores) or that someone put the doughboy sticks in with the baseball bats and hockey sticks instead of the camping stuff (yep, that too.)

I bring twice as many pairs of clothes for Kai as I think she needs, and three times as many diapers. Somehow we always need more diapers when we camp. She still wears cloth, and I’ll post on cloth and camping this weekend so that you can see how we do it. In fact, check out our Instagram this weekend for all the camping highlights and back here for an all camping weekend.