Last summer we acquired a tent from one of Russ's friends. We set it up in the back yard once and the boys slept in it a couple nights. This summer, we decided to attempt our first camping trip outside of the back yard! The goal was to keep it simple, and I think we did just that. 

There is a county conservation area that is under a 30 minute drive from our house. I figured if things really went south, we could easily get home. Russ biked to the campsite and we met him there with the car. Right when we got there, we had the boys pick up sticks to prepare for our campfire. A wooded area surrounded the campsite, so it was pretty easy!

I went to Pinterest for some cook out ideas, and one that popped up was pigs in a blanket. 

It looked like a good idea in theory, but it was hard to get the whole crescent roll baked without burning it.

Russ got a fun little cook stove for his biking adventures, so we used it to boil some water for some cheesy rice bowls. For the rest of the meal we kept it simple with yogurt pouches and some chips.

After our hike we came back to camp and made a little dessert, also Pinterest inspired. We took waffle cones, 

filled them with marshmallows, layered in some chocolate chips, 

wrapped them in foil, and put them in the hot coals. I brought long tongs to rotate them and move them around.

Some of them did pretty well and others got burnt a lot. I think I maybe need to wrap them in more foil layers next time.

After dessert, we walked a little and captured a family selfie.

There was also a tee pee at the conservation area, so the boys checked it out.

We finished off the night with some books in the tent. I have a couple of the Shine-A-Light books from Usborne Books and they were a hit.

The night went really well. The boys went down to sleep well, and they slept all night! We woke up the next morning, ate some granola bars for breakfast, packed up, and headed home! It was a great simple camping trip that I'm sure we will do again sometime.

Have you camped with your family? Do you have any tips?