If you read yesterdays post, then you know the boys are not with me for the next week and some.

BUT I forgot to do the weekend update and what a weekend it was!!

Are you wondering what in the world YAMPING is? I’ll get there in a minute but first…

Let me take you back nearly 12 years ago… (cue the dream sequence)

⛰ I believe my youngest was 18 months old the last time we went camping; just a short time before his dad and I split. We loved camping. Everything about it. The outdoors, the smell of breakfast cooking over an open flame, the hiking, sleeping in a tent, sitting around the fire, seeing so many stars, EVERYTHING!

We were regulars. We often camped two, three, or more times a summer.

Then the big D happened and it stopped. NO reason, NO explanation, we just didn’t go any more. 😢

I’m not sure why I didn’t think to take them on my own. Could’ve been the chaos that was my life in that moment; could’ve been going back to work full time after many, many years of being a stay-at-home mom; could’ve been lack of energy. The reason really isn’t important because well, I just never considered taking my kids camping all by my little lonesome.

Back to the present.

Two years ago after hearing me talk about wanting to go camping nearly every time we had a family get together, my sister and mama bought us a tent and sleeping bags for Christmas.

I remember opening the tent and being instantly transported to another place and time. At first it was hard to remember those times and the loss of them. That tent sat in our storage unit for two years.

Then, as I started planning our Summer of Fun list for this year I put tent camping on the list.

Sometimes when you haven’t done something in a REALLY long time, doing it again can be a bit intimidating. Such is the case for us with camping.

Oh the hubs had camped before, obviously I had camped before, and my oldest sort of remembered going, but lets face it, 12 years, that’s a long time.

It’s on the list, NOW what do I do?

I knew I wanted to get us back in the swing of things slowly. You know, break us in so to speak. But how?

I was sitting at my mama’s house one afternoon as she prepped me to do her work for her while she was on vacation and it hit me. THAT’S A REALLY NICE BACKYARD!

It has a pool, a trampoline, trees, a deck, a grill, a fire pit, and indoor plumbing! 🙂

An idea was forming in my head and I couldn’t shake it. This may be the best way for us to get a taste of camping without jumping in with both eyes shut. I mean indoor plumbing for crying out loud!!

So, I put the plan in motion and asked mama if we could use her ‘lake house campground’ while she was on vacation. (it’s not really a lake house campground; it’s in the suburbs, but it sounded good to call it a lake house. After all, it has a pool!!)

She agreed we could.

The plan started taking shape.

The hubs and the kids and I started talking meals and time frames. We started planning things we could do while we were camping. We talked about swimming and reading and OH sitting by the fire. I started watching the weather. I did not want this to be a rain soaked experience. ☔

Mama left for her vacation and we packed our gear! Tent, sleeping bags, food, activities, lawn chairs, and everything in between  was thrown into the back of the van and away we went! I wanted this to be a real, or at least as close to real, camping experience as I could possibly make it. (by the by, mama’s house is a whopping 12 minutes from our house. It was a long and exhausting trip 😉  )

I was nervous and excited all in a flash. I hoped the kids would like it as much as they did when they were little. I hoped I remembered how in the world to put a tent up.

We Arrive!

It’s decided that the boys and I will go set up camp while hubs is at work. So early Thursday morning we arrive to set up!

First thing up, the tent! It’s new but let me tell you not much has changed about setting up a tent, except… our new tent has a 3×3 closet (which is actually a pop out section) and an awning. These two things took twice as long to figure out then putting up the whole tent, but figure it out we did!

Once the tent was up everything else fell into place. We had our first camping meal (bratwurst, baked beans and chips), we started our first camp fire, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. At some point during the day, my youngest came running up to me and said

“MOM!! I just figured out what we’re doing!! We’re YAMPING! That’s camping in a yard, a backyard!!!” He’s so smart! Now you know what yamping is!

Let the Adventure Begin

As we started our backyard camping adventure, my oldest blessed our first meal with the following:

“Lord, thank you for this wilderness food that we caught ourselves. May it give us strength to be able to get back to civilization. “
Oh for heavens sake! Lmbo!!! 😂😂😃  DAY 1 – SUCCESS

The next morning we tooled around the ‘campground’ in the most lazy of fashions and then headed out to be a tourist in our own town (I highly recommned this; you see things in a new light!) and caught a movie as this was the request of my oldest for his birthday. We then went back to camping, had walking tacos for dinner and told stories around the fire. As we’re sitting around the campfire, youngest says

“I’m hot and my body is producing liquid from my pores. “

In other words he was sweating!!! Lol!! ‪😂😂😃  DAY 2- SUCCESS

On our final morning, I got up before everyone so I could start a fire. I wanted to see if I remembered how to cook breakfast over an open flame. I had to get a bit creative with the fire ring and design my own cooking ‘grill’. It worked like a charm!! Breakfast was pancakes (gluten free of course), eggs and bacon!! YUM. It smelled heavenly and tasted just as good! We swam, read books in the tent, relaxed some more, and slowly broke camp!! DAY 3 – SUCCESS

We’d Do It Again

Yamping was a great way for us to get back in the swing of things. It didn’t cost us anything more than food costs; we were able to figure out how our tent works; we learned a bit about our ability to entertain ourselves; I learned I’ve not forgotten how to cook on a fire; We took the time to slow down as a family and enjoy one another and most importantly, we learned we WANT TO CAMP or YAMP more!!

Have you ever YAMPED?