Who's ready for some CAMPING?

  This weather has me crazy excited! We love to spend as much time outdoors as we can when the weather gets warm. Camping, kayaking, canoeing, hiking, fishing you name it we probably want to do it. Now that being said, we have come to realize that we had begun to unintentionally put ourselves and our wants on the back burner to do what everyone else wanted us to do. We love everyone so much we didn't want to disappoint them, so even if we already had plans we canceled and agreed to everything that was asked of us. Doing this took most of our summer last year away from us and caused us to miss out on many great experiences. We now know we can not continue to live that way. It was stretching us way to thin. We are choosing us first this year with occasional obligations! Hopefully people will understand! 

  Spring is here which means it is time to get into gear for our outdoors adventures! Not only are we almost ready to start planting the majority of our plants outdoors (in the almost ready to reveal garden), we are planning to go on this years first camping trip! (Hopefully next weekend!) We adore camping more than most people probably do. When we are out there it is as if we are cut off from everyday life and living in a dream world without problems! It is our peace and tranquility. No demanding job, no electronics coaxing the children to play and watch, and most of all NO STRESS! We make every moment spent camping count! Ahh... I can feel it already!

  We had to pull out the bug spray due to ticks because they are extreme this year already. Jay used some on himself yesterday to go looking for more mushrooms and when he returned and sat next to me, the smell of the spray triggered memories. I leaned over to him and said, "You smell like camping". It is time to pull out the camping gear and make sure we have all that we need when the time comes to use it. We may look like we are moving (slightly) when we go camping because of all the things we take with us. But we want to be prepared.

          Clothes, shoes,bug spray, cooking supplies and dishes, first aid kit, fishing gear, hiking gear, water purifiers, bathroom necessities, bedding, tents, food, animals and their food and maybe a few other things that we see fit. 

  

  It really depends on how far out we will be camping, what we plan to do on the trip, and how long we plan to stay. This year I would like to try to camp one time with the minimum amount of things as we can to see how we do. Wouldn't that be fun?

  Now we are campers and when I say campers I mean full on camping. Tent, fire grilled food, little to no electricity (a string of lights for night time because I am insanely night blind), hang drying laundry and so on! We do not do "glamping" with a camper and television, air conditioning and stove, refrigerator and mattress. We both strongly agree that this is far from the camping style we would ever go with, or at least while we are young. We are not against those who do camp this way because everyone should get as much wilderness as possible, but to us we feel that if you camp that style you might as well bring your house to the lake. Am I right? There is just something special about roasting marshmallows over the fire that you built from the wood you harvested. To look up into the sky and see ALL of the stars and not just city lights. (Now that we live in the country we see all the stars all the time!) To wake up to the bright sun rising over the bed of water that lays nearby and listening to the birds sing their beautiful morning songs. We gotta go camping now!!!

  In fact we like camping so much that when we can't afford the campsite and gas to get there, (yes sometimes we can not afford the extra 25 dollars), we camp out in our own yard! Yeah, that's right! In our own yard. Right outside, we toss up the tents grab the marshmallows and start a fire! Even though the house is right there it has no temptations on us to go inside to sleep in our beds or to go inside to watch television. We aren't tempted because the outdoors is the best place to be! 

  Now that we are learning and teaching the girls to forage, our camping trips will be even more eventful! I think we will plan to forage for different plants each trip we take! We also like to fish and fresh caught fried fish is so delicious! Hoping for many, many fish this year. Who knows sense we plan to camp so early this year, maybe we will find some morels to go with that fish! If you know of some good plants to forage for when camping please let us know down in the comments and we will see if we can find them! It'll be like a special scavenger hunt!

  I am just so excited and I know Jay (my husband) is as well! This year will be full of adventures and outdoors experiences! This will be sophie (our newest puppy)'s first time at a campsite and Maddox (our almost 2 year old dog)'s second time. I hope Sophie likes it as much as we know Maddox does! Last time we almost got Maddox to get on the kayak to go for a ride, almost! He is starting to get use to the water and has been getting more courageous as to how far into the water he will go. One day he will be swimming with the family, I just know it! Hopefully Sophie has a great time out there with us on our first trip this year. She's not too fond of her baths so we shall see how she likes the lake or river! 

  Oh the things we will do this year! We made it through our first kayaking trip where two of our three girls got to kayak all by themselves for their first time ever. We've gone on our first fishing trip this year although we only caught a tow strap and some leaves, and we've even gone on our first morel mushroom hunt as a family this year and found 27 mushrooms! It is only the beginning of April and look at what we have already done! There is so much potential for this year ahead. I want to see the girls catch their own fish, crawdads and even find their first edible forest plant! Just imagining what fun we'll have this year makes my heart full! 

  Okay I got myself all excited for camping so I am going to go clean out the camping bag and get it ready for our first trip! Thanks for reading!  If you like this article and would like to see more about our journey come check us out on YouTube and Instagram. Thanks for reading and as always don't forget to have a good time! Bye guys!