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Yesterday, I shared about how we planned and prepared for our very first family camping trip. Today, I want to share five valuable lessons we learned on our first camping trip.

1. Go With Experienced Campers

If you want to have an amazing first camping trip, don’t go it alone. It’s more fun with friends — especially friends who have a lot of camping experience under their belt!

We went with three other families from our community group at church and ALL of them had more camping experience than us. One of the families has pretty extensive camping experience and they served as our guides for the adventure. They picked the campground, they gave us suggestions on what to pack, and they planned the food for the trip.

Having people who had already done this many times before and who could help steer us in the right direction before the trip and while on the trip was incredibly helpful. We even had a meeting where they gave us suggestions on what to pack and then sent us a suggested packing list!

Yes, we had a huge leg up because of this — and I know it was definitely one of the reasons we were able to enjoy the trip so much much!

2. Keep the Food Simple

There are lots and lots of amazing camping meals you can make over the fire or on a portable cookstove. Instead of going all out on our first camping trip, we kept it simple.

Everyone brought cereal and milk for breakfast. (The milk stayed cold in the coolers with ice. If we had been on a longer camping trip, this wouldn’t have been as great of an option, but since this was just a three-day trip, it worked well.)

One of the families brought a Keurig so we could all have coffee, hot tea, and hot cocoa. Each campsite had one outlet, so we were definitely not roughing it as much as you could at other campsites out

in the boonies! (If you don’t have electricity, you could also use a portable electric tea kettle with instant coffee or some kind of pour over coffee filtration system or tea bags. Or you could go all out and make coffee over the campfire.)

We all brought stuff for our own lunches such as: sandwiches, chips, fruit snacks, veggies, fruit, granola bars, etc. We went on a hike one day for lunch, so we made sure all the lunch stuff was easily portable.

We also brought snacks and this was definitely a necessity! People had told me to bring extra food because everyone would be more hungry with all the exercise and walking we’d be doing. That was definitely the case! I couldn’t believe how much food the kids downed while we were there! They ate a lot at meals plus were hungry for snacks about every two hours! I was glad I had packed plenty of snacks.

For dinners, we all pitched in and brought some of the items and it made it really simple. The first night, we had hot dogs and sausages roasted over the fire, veggies and dip, pasta salad (made ahe

ad of time), and s’mores. The second night, we had a taco bar with taco meat (made ahead of time and heated up on a little portable cookstove), tortillas, lettuce, chips, salsa, cheese, sour cream, tomatoes, etc. And then we had campfire pies with different fruit fillings (or mountain pies, as some people call them) for dessert.

3. Prepare for Sleep to Be a Challenge

This one caught me off guard. I’m usually a sound sleeper — especially when I’ve gotten a lot of exercise during the day! But I struggled to sleep while we were camping. And I wasn’t alone; pretty much all the adults in our group did.

The first night, there were so many noises to adjust to, I struggled to get co

mfortable, it was warmer than I’d anticipated, and all of the nature noises kept startling me. And then, I think I was nervous about the fact that there wasn’t a bathroom in our tent and what would happen if I needed to wake up and go to the bathroom in the night. It was kind of silly stuff, I know, but I was surprised by how unsettled I felt sleeping in a tent as an adult.

The second night, I prepared better and used a few extra blankets to make the air mattress more like how our bed at home feels. We also used a sound machine app on our phone to help drown out the outdoor noises. Both of these things seemed to help and we both slept better, but it was still very fitful sleep compared to how I sleep at home!

If I had known I was going to struggle sleeping, I probably would have done a be

tter job bringing more pillows and a few of my favorite blankets from home. I may have also considered investing in some sort of portable bathroom for the night time so I wouldn’t have had to worry about leaving the tent to traipse to the shower house in the middle of the night.

4. Plan for Everything to Take Longer Than You Expect

I think this was the biggest lesson I learned from camping: it’s a LOT of work. I calculated that it takes about 10 times as much time to pack for a camping trip than a regular trip. I’m not joking.

We usually pack for a 3-5 day family trip in about 1 1/2 hours or less. We have a system. Everyone works together. And we just get it done.

It took us every bit of 10 hours to get things ready and pack for this trip — and that didn’t even include the time I spent researching things online, making my lists, and making purchases!

Now that we have all of our camping gear together, it should be much easier in the future. But I’m positive that it’s still going to be more work to gear up for a camping trip than it will ever take to go on a regular trip.

And that’s just the packing part! It’s also a lot of work to set up your camp and to tear down your campsite, pack up your vehicle, and then unpack at home.

I don’t say this to discourage you from camping; I just wanted to give you the reality of it. I think that the packing and setting up camp and tearing down camp and unpacking are all part of the process. And you can enjoy it if you view it as such. But just go into things knowing that it’s going to take you quite a bit of time and there’s really no getting around that.

5. Bring Your Adventurous Attitude

A camping trip is going to be an adventure, there’s no doubt about it. It’s not really so much as to what happens on the camping trip or how much of it goes as planned as to whether you enjoy it; it’s all in your attitude.

It’s not going to go as planned. It’s not going to be perfect.

There will be bugs. Lots and lots of bugs!

It may rain. It might be hot. It might be cold.

You might have trouble getting your tent set up. You might forget to bring something.

It might be a long walk to the bathroom. You might have trouble sleeping.

You might get a sunburn. Your allergies might flare up.

You will probably miss some of the comforts of home. There’s a good chance that one (or more!) of your family members will have a bad attitude.

But none of those things have to ruin your camping trip. If you view the camping experience as an adventure, you can roll with the punches and have a GREAT camping trip!

A Few Other Tips:

• Shower ahead of time — You don’t know what the shower situation will be and you may not want to shower while you’re there! Gratefully, the shower houses were very decent where we stayed, but I’ve heard that is often not the case.
• Bring your own toilet paper and soap — The shower houses where we stayed did not have any hand soap in them. Gratefully, I had brought some body wash, so we all shared that. But next time around, I will definitely bring a pump of hand soap, just in case. Also, bring your own toilet paper just to have backup in case the bathrooms are out or run out.
• Expect your allergies to flare up — If you have outdoor allergies, there is a good chance they will flare up big time because you are basically living in a sea of allergens in the woods. I wish I had thought of this ahead of time and had brought some of our different allergy meds and remedies.
• Keep all of the towels, blankets, and clothes in your vehicle — If there’s any chance of rain at all, keep all of the towels, blankets, and clothes in your vehicle, just in case it starts raining. That way, once the rain lets up, you’ll guarantee that you have at least some dry clothes and towels and blankets!

Tomorrow, I’ll share my Camping Trip Master List with everything we brought, plus a few additions I’m adding for next time!

If you’re a camper, I’d love to hear your best advice and tips. Share them in the comments!

So, on Friday afternoon, we did something we’d never done as a family before: we went on a three-day camping trip at a state park with our community group from church.

Yes, we stayed in a tent.

A tent. Not a hotel. Not even an RV. A TENT.

If you know me well, you know how this is not my normal deal. Not. at. all.

In fact, the last time I’d been tent camping was when I was something like 6 years old?? But I couldn’t say no to this family adventure since it’s my Year of Yes and all.

I was nervous and apprehensive, wondering whether or not this first camping trip would be our last camping trip.

But you guys: The whole trip was great — from start to finish. For years, I had convinced myself I didn’t like camping… but that was because I’ve never actually been camping since I was 6 years old!

Yes, it was a lot of work to plan and prep for. Yes, there were a lot of bugs. Yes, the bathrooms and showers weren’t as clean as a hotel. Yes, it’s not as comfortable to sleep in a tent as it is to sleep in my own bed.

However, I shocked myself by genuinely LOVING the camping experience!!

We stayed at a gorgeous state park (the Natchez Trace State Park). It was incredible to be out in nature and be serenaded to sleep by the frogs. It was so fun to see our kids having a blast without any sort of screen for entertai

nment. And I savored the opportunity to be unplugged, to soak up the sun, to sit around the campfire, to read in the hammock, and to laugh and talk and make so many memories with our community group.

I can’t believe that I’m saying this, but it’s true: I’m ready to go camping again very soon! (In fact, I already pitched the idea of us doing a three-week camping trip visiting various state parks!)

Many of you have asked me if I would write a post about what I learned from our first camping experience and what helped to make it a success. So, I’m going to take the next few days to share what I learned as a newbie camper and some of the ways we prepared/things we brought that allowed us to enjoy our camping trip so much more…

1. Do Your Research

Since we were so inexperienced and I was nervous about “roughing it” like this, I did a LOT of research ahead of time. I have a fear of the unknown, so I’ve found the best way to combat that fear is to over-research and over-prepare.

First off, I asked you all for advice. Once again, you proved that I have the best readers on t

he planet. You SHOWED UP with advice. Loads of it. And it was good stuff.

I pored over your comments and suggestions and made a long list of ideas. I specifically looked for things that experienced campers suggested over and over again.

I want to say a huge thank you to you all for your camping advice and suggestions of what we should bring. I may have gotten teased for being over-prepared, but we couldn’t believe that there wasn’t anything we wished we would have brought that we didn’t. And I owe it to you all for sharing your experience and wise advice.

I would have never thought to bring some of the items you suggested or to pack like you

advised, but it really made a difference and made the trip so much smoother and more enjoyable. And next time, it will be so much easier to pack and prepare since I have my trusty To Bring On A Camping Trip list now (I’ll be sharing that list on Friday!).

2. Make a Plan

Not only did I make a big list of what to bring, I also researched the best way to store everything and have everything set up while we were camping. Someone suggested this post on tent camping organization and it inspired us to buy plastic bins to pack our camping supplies in.

This proved to be a fantastic idea. Not only did it keep everything really organized when packing and at the campsite, but it also made packing up our campsite and unloading the vehicle at home so much easier.

Plus, everything was protected from rain, bugs, and wind — and we ended up having some rain, some wind, and LOTS of bugs!

In the spirit of being prepared, we also practiced setting up the tent the day before we left to make sure it would be big enough to fit all five of us. We ended up deciding that it was a little too small and we went out and go

a second tent that night from Walmart, just to be safe.

The kids slept in one tent and Jesse and I slept in the other tent, and we were glad we ended up going with two tents. It gave everyone more space, it gave us more privacy, and I think everyone got better sleep since we weren’t all stacked on top of each other in one tent.

…To be continued! (Tomorrow I’ll be sharing 5 important lessons we learned on our first camping trip and then on Friday, I’ll share my Master Camping Packing List). Stay tuned!

Have you been camping before? What are your best tips to prepare for a great camping trip?