Last weekend we went camping. For one day. Yup, ONE DAY. And you know what? You should too! Camping is so much fun, but if you’re like me you might be thinking, “Oh, I totally want to go….but we’re really, really busy! We just don’t have time. It’s kind of a big production.” So when Greg proposed we go camping for one night….wellll, I kinda thought he was crazy. And maybe he was, but I gotta tell ya we had a BLAST. It was such a good idea. We went to a site that was actually really close (barely 25 minutes away) so it was low stress but deep in the mountains and so gorgeous, we felt like we were a million miles away!

Although we were close to home, I promise this wasn’t glamping….there wasn’t a store nearby, we cooked all our food over the fire, and we slept in sleeping bags in our little tent. I think Sammy had the most to get used to. He was very nervous, not sure what was happening (“what? everyone is sleeping outside??”). Aaaand he had to be on a long chain/leash while at the campsite. Which he wasn’t sure he liked much. I thought he looked like Ghost, from Game of Thrones.

Greg and I used to camp all the time, but this was the first family trip we’ve taken. I’ve never backbacked into a camping site—I’m too much of a City Mouse for that. But car camping is still really fun/doable and still rugged. We packed well, but not quite as efficiently as we used to—I was a little bit rusty! We had a mini cooler with some perishables and lots of easy dry snacks and fruit. The guys brought a ball and we also brought some games to play together. It was really fun to look at all our old equipment and see what was still in pretty great shape and what we wanted to upgrade. Our lanterns were still awesome and we played a little Jenga under the starry sky. Wolfie taught us how to play, I’d never actually played it before! I found this set at the thrift store earlier in the week and scooped it up especially for our trip.

We definitely want a new tent. I can’t lie….the tent was reeeeeeeally squishy!! It’s an old one and meant for two people, not two grownups….one 8-year old wiggle worm and one giant 104 pound fur ball!! I have to say, ol’ Sammy was totally into the tent. He would poke his little snout out the zipper to make sure everything was ok. He took his guarding duties verrrry seriously. It got extremely cold at night and the wind was really whipping the tent back and forth dramatically. I don’t think Sammy slept at all. Wolfie slept like a log.

We were going to make pancakes but I also brought bagels and cream cheese……guess what Wolfie voted for?? The guys went on a little hike with Sammy while I tidied up the camp site (the wind had blown everything around!). And yes….we played a little more Jenga! The best part was seeing how much fun Wolfie had. He’s definitely a 21st Century Boy and loves his 3DS and anything computery. We didn’t bring any electronics (other than phones…and we only used them for photos!) and Wolfie never once mentioned that he missed anything. In fact, he wanted to stay longer.

Before we left, we all piled in the tent one more time for a few rounds of CLUE.

Final conclusion: One day was totally worth it, but I think I would have done 2 days for even more fun. Oh, and for the record,  it was Mrs. White….with the wrench….in the library.

How about you? Are you campers? Have you ever done a one day quickie camping trip??

UPDATE: A few people have asked me about the CLUE game. Wolfie got it as a gift from our awesome neighbors and we love it. It’s a reproduction of one of the original 1960s versions (officially called the Vintage Collection Clue Game). But what makes this edition so awesome is it comes in a great wooden box, that makes it PERFECT for camping. No little game pieces spilling out all over the back of the car! And if you’re interested, you can read about the original Clue game versions on this fun post I did on board games!)