Camping with Babies

Camping with babies can be challenging, but my biggest piece of advice is to plan ahead.

I have always been a "fly by the seat of my pants" kind of girl, so planning ahead in detail is something extremely difficult for me, but it certainly paid off on this trip!

Here are my top 5 items*** that I could not live without while camping with babies (in no particular order):

1. Wraps/carriers- This is how we got by while we set up camp. I am wearing my oscha nebula size 6 woven wrap and we also brought a kelty carrier and mei tai for Gideon (not pictured). This is something I cannot stress enough. The ground was uneven and rocky and Gideon often got frustrated and wanted to be carried. There was also a large hill leading up to where we parked the car and a double stroller just wouldn't have been able to hack it.

2. Eddie Bauer soothing comfort bassinet- We got the first one second-hand when Gideon was a baby and used it a ton with him (until he was almost a year!) and I knew that I would need a second with these girlies. It folds completely flat for easy travel and it has a bug screen. I LOVE THIS BOUNCER. It is perfect for days at the beach, the park, or just the backyard. As you can see, it left us plenty of room in our 3 man tent for me and Rob and Gideon. The only problem is that I don't think they manufacture it anymore. I was lucky enough to find our second one on craigslist for only $15! Also, it gets terrible reviews on amazon, but if you are planning on doing a lot of outdoor adventures I would definitely recommend this item.

3. Warm stuff- We have two JJ Cole Bundleme things that we used for sleeping bags for the girls and they worked great! They are actually for car seats and have slits in the back so that the straps can come through but that actually worked perfectly for the bouncers as well! Gideon's sleeping bag is just a child sized bag that we got at Smith's Marketplace. It was a little large for him so we had to cuddle up a bit, but I can see it working well in the future.

4. Bumbos- at this particular site there was no optimal place to lay down a blanket to let the girls play, so we were very happy that we had brought the bumbos. They love to sit in them and hold hands and just watch the world as they relax.

                                            

The Car- I know it seems kind of silly, but hear me out! For your first camping trip with babies I would suggest NOT backpacking a couple miles away from your car. Our car was a nice little distance away which was perfect for when the girls got too hot and overstimulated. They decided they didn't want to take a nap and didn't want to be held but just wanted to scream. I finally gave in and put them in their car seats and drove around for a few minutes and that is all it took to calm them down and set them up for their long midday nap. 

Many people thought that it was crazy to do this trip (myself included) but some of my favorite childhood memories come from camping as a family. 

My biggest advice is to plan ahead, but to not be disappointed if things don't work according to plan. I definitely didn't expect to drive the girls around for their naptime, and it felt a little like cheating, but in the end it was what we needed to do to keep things happy. 

 ***I put links to every item, but we bought every single one of the items listed second-hand. We never payed full price for any of them. Check out Craigslist.com, ksl.com, or facebook for local used items.

Gideon was helping me blow on the fire to get it started

We were so glad we brought Meisje along! She kept Gideon company
and they played all around the campsite together

Gideon had no fear when it came to the snake that we found

Rob's buddies from school were great with the kids!

Things were pretty comfy at our campsite