1st Family Backyard Camp Out

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Growing up Mike and I both have memories of camping out in our backyards.  I can remember having a little 2 person tent and taking tons of blankets, books, and Oreos to settle in for the night a whole 15 steps away from the back door when friends would come over.

When we moved to the house last summer Mike found his little 2 person tent and would put it up in the backyard for the kids to play in, but we knew if we wanted to do backyard camp outs we would need something a little bigger.

With Mike’s birthday and Father’s Day so close I decided to surprise him with a tent.  We’ve been back and forth on what kind of tent we should get.  Since we do go camping with my parents we wanted something that we could spend a weekend in, and down the road we want the kids to be able to bring friends along so it needed to be a good size.  We decided to get a Coleman 8-person tent from Amazon.

Over the weekend we tested it out.  Mike, my Dad and Eleanor put the tent together on Sunday morning and I was surprised with how big it really is.  Since it was already set up we decided to have our 1st backyard camp out as a family.

We attempted to go to bed at 8pm, but with sun still out we decided to come back inside and watch a movie.  So at 9:30 we headed back out and the kids were so excited to go “camping”.  I thought it would be tough, but they were both asleep by 9:45pm.

The ground was a little rough, but we all made it through the night, and I would call it a success!  Now I’m even more excited about the Great American Backyard Campout at Reeves Reed Arboretum and making memories in our own backyard.  Bring on the sleeping bags, flashlights, and double stuffed oreos, we’re ready to rough it!

I strongly suggest if you’re thinking about camping with your kids to give the backyard Camp Out a try.  There’s even a National Day, June 28th.

Did you grow up backyard camping? What’s a must have in your tent?

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