Camping with the Babies

"The monster....I hear it! It's gone, it ran away. The monster..."

This is what my two-days-shy-of-three-years-old said to my husband in the wee hours of the morning while we were camping. I just laid in my sleeping bag, and laughed in my head because I was too cold to laugh out loud. Let me tell you something about camping with kids: It is a BLAST! But it's also an adventure in both the good ways and the not-so-fun ways. There are older and wiser people in my family that have mastered the art of camping with kids. Matt and I are just scratching the surface.

I would call our first attempt at camping with our kids a success. Nobody got serious bodily injuries. None of us starved. We all made it home without damaging any of our goods. Also, Charlotte LOVED going potty in a hole. That's my girl! The only hang-ups were Wyatt not walking, and it being colder than the northern tundra at night.

A word on taking a crawler camping...it's fun for a little bit, then they get sick of it. Wyatt got so frustrated that he couldn't get up and run around with Charlotte! He also got pretty tired of the pine needles.

SO....we will probably wait until Wyatt is REALLY walking before we camp again (which shouldn't be too long, now. He finally started walking everywhere this weekend!!! Hooray!!!!)

Now...i'm going to share with you the best 2 camping recipes I have ever had. (outside of my dad's stew)

This recipe was great because I could make it ahead of time, and just throw in the eggs and cheese when we got there. I also LOVE the "no clean-up" factor. From now on, I will look for almost all tin-foil meals for this reason. No clean-up makes camping a lot more enjoyable for me. Although I do love cooking in my dutch oven. I also loved how healthy this breakfast was. Biscuits and bacon-gravy are amazing, but I usually want to go lie down and sleep for 6 hours after eating them.

Our next favorite was a twist on a classic. M&M Smore's. Have you heard of these? I wish I had a picture. You roast a mallow, pull off the outer skin, roll the gooey part in mini mm's and smoosh it between the crackers. Guys...it...was...amazing! Matt doesn't usually like smore's. (what!?) He is crazy. He ate 3 of these I think. Which is kind of a big deal.

Anyways, a quick word on that cobbler made with two cans of pie filling and cake mix....DON'T make it! It was awful. Even ice-cream couldn't rescue it. I will never take a cobbler short-cut again. The fresh berries and real batter is the only way to go. And if you mix the dry ingredients ahead of time, bag it, and put it together there, it makes life much easier.

Also....bring Hostess (or Tasty Kakes or whatever it's called now) cupcakes...

They will make everything better. Happy camping!