A backyard campout

In my childhood, I spent a lot of summer trips with my family tent camping. We visited up the North Shore in Minnesota or in state parks elsewhere, with just my brother and parents, or tagging along with another family. I have so many wonderful memories of days and nights spent tent camping. Nicholas also did a fair amount of camping as a kid, and we knew it was something we wanted to do with our boys, especially now that they are two and five.

So this summer, we got ourselves a tent and some air mattresses and decided to trial it out with a night of backyard camping!

We ate dinner inside, and then Nicholas and I set up the tent. Then, while Nicholas made a fire, while I got our beds ready (and cozy). Nicholas caught fireflies with Cooper, which was his number one request, and the boys ran around the yard, playing. Then, we made s'mores and sat by the fire for a bit as the last bit of the day's light eased away.

After brushing teeth and putting pajamas on, we all headed back out to the tent to read a few books by flashlight and go to sleep by the sounds of the outdoors (flashlights and sunglasses – for Finn – within arm's reach).

It was a great "soft" intro to camping that felt very low pressure. The boys had an absolute blast, and we are all looking forward to more camping adventures a bit further from home sometime.