camping done right.

Aug 7 2016

I knew it. I knew there was a way to go camping without the annoying parts of coordinating with friends and scrambling on 7 different computers trying to reserve a spot at a provincial park, paying to pitch a tent on the dirt ground, laboriously prepping all the food to cook on the campfire, washing all the dishes in a small basin of pumped water and walking to the bathrooms with a flashlight at night.

But there are parts of camping that are wonderful like the excitment of setting up the tent and arranging all the mattresses together,  roasting marshmellows and making s'mores, being in new location and going on a nature hike and staying up late chatting with friends with the ambiance of the campfire flickering.

I agree that camping is a truly Canadian experience and every kid should have camping experiences growing up but after still enduring symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder from our last camping trip we knew there had to be a better way. That's where our lovely friends Sarah and Jordan come in. They live in a house with a huge yard in Abbotsford, we told them about our desire to give our kids the camping experience without all the sucky parts it is for the parents and we came up with camping in their backyard. Their backyard is huge so we invited another couple with kids that also shared similiar views about camping. 7 kids and 6 adults, this is gonna be fun right??

Well, it was a great success. We set up 3 tents in their backyard and still had room for their massive trampoline, their playground structure and their hot tub. Yes, hot tub.

It was so great to have their house to cook dinner instead of trying to boil a pot of water over a camp stove for 30 minutes.  Sarah cooked a fabulous Mennonite dinner for us and we feasted on farmer's sausage, rollkuchen and watermelon.  Despite being part Mennonite, my kids have never had rollkuchen before but loved it. I mean who doesn't love deep fried dough dipped in corn syrup though?

The trampoline kept the kids (and Simon) occupied most of the weekend. They had a propane fireplace so we roasted marshmallows and made s'mores. The kids got to stay up way past their usual bedtime but eventually went to sleep so we could go in the hot tub without them. We even went on a hike the next day to Cascade Falls just like we would if we were "really" camping.

I'd defiantly vote for backyard camping again next year....all the best parts of camping with a ton less work...although Noah did cry to go pee at 3:00am, I tried to convince him just to pee on the grass but he didn't go for it and started screaming but hey, at least I didn't need a flashlight to walk the 20 steps back inside the house !