Lessons Learned Camping

Last Wednesday, we left for a 5 day camping trip. We headed north to Door County, and our first camping trip with a baby. We camped last year and the year before with both boys, but never with a baby. In the last few weeks, I have heard ALL kinds of "advice" (and other stuff) about camping with a baby. Most of it goes like this, "What? Are you crazy? Why would you go camping with a baby??!?!?!?".

Well, here are my lessons learned from this years trip:

You can fit 3 kids, and all the camping stuff for 5 people for 4 days in a Toyota Sienna.



You will forget at least 5 things, and have to go back (15 minutes from home) for at least one of them because you CAN'T live without it!

A former boy scout is great at teaching his boys how to put up a tent, and makes some yummy food too!

Putting two boys in the same tent means no one gets to sleep for hours and hours! So Daddy had one boy in the little tent, and I had the other boy and izzy in the big tent. The boys each spent 2 nights with one of us and then traded to be with the other so that no one got too upset!

A 5-year-old is always willing to search for more wood for the fire, as long as he thinks he'll get to throw it in the fire, or cook a marshmallow on that fire.


A recently potty trained 3 year old, will revert right back to going potty in his pants, for no apparent reason!Sometimes it's hard to locate your 3 and 5 year old children, but your 4 month old is always right where you put her!

A 5-year-old who hasn't napped in 2 years, will decide to "rest" in the tent and sleeping bag to "stay warm" and take a 2 hour nap!!

Anything cooked on the fire tastes better than the same thing cooked at home in the microwave (popcorn, hot dogs, pancakes, bacon, etc).


A 3-year-old meltdown seems quieter in the forest, than it does in say a coffee shop or your own living room! But it requires just as much patience from the parent involved, to end it!

Camping with an almost 4-month old is WAY easier, than camping with two boys ages 3.5 and 5!!! Except when she cries inconsolably for 30 minutes on a hike!
5 days of disposable diapers (even eco-friendly compostable ones) lead to diaper rash, that is easily cleared up by 2 days back in cloth diapers! I love Izzy's cloth diapes, and the wonderful things they let me avoid!! (No pictures for this lesson!)

It was well worth it and I'll do it again next year!