Take into consideration we only went for one night and while we did sleep in a tent, we weren’t exactly “roughing it”, so some may not even consider this to be true camping. But for us, it was about as rough as we’d ever get.

ANYWAY. So the verdict is…it wasn’t SO bad. ;) I’ll make a list of my pros and cons since I’m all OCD like that:

CONS:

The bugs.
Specifically the bees. Actually there weren’t really many bugs overall, but there were bees and they make me TOTALLY freak out. I was uncomfortable worrying about bees around me and every 5 minutes or so I’d suddenly jump up and run away because I heard the buzzing. But once we got the fire going it wasn’t so bad and then once it got dark I never heard another one. We also went on a little hike and there were some HUUUUUUUUGE bee-like things that I saw that scared the crap out of me. I have no idea what they were actually. Not cool. (I know, I’m a total whiny wimp.)

The cold.
We have a nice sized tent and it has a sheer netting on the top so you can see out at night and then comes with a cover that you can put on. Well, it got cooler than I expected it would even before we went to bed (it was a hot day). We were planning on sleeping in the tent with the cover off but decided to put it on at the last minute before going to bed so the boys wouldn’t get cold. Our tent has two sections with a zipper “wall” in between and the boys were in one side, us in the other. We tried to quickly and quietly place the cover over the tent without waking them up and didn’t get it over our side. I thought it would be ok, but dang, it got cold! We should have either a) had sleeping bags, or b) brought a couple more blankets. I just didn’t sleep well at all because of it. Lesson learned. The boys slept all night though, thankfully.

Not enough firewood.
We brought two bundles from the store and after getting the fire going, we realized after a while that we were going through the wood faster than we realized. Hubby drove back to the park entrance where they sell firewood and bought two huge bags, thinking we’d have some extra to take home. Well, we ended up putting the last log on right before going to bed and had nothing in the morning. We were up by 6am and it was still cold so it would have been nice to have a fire. Instead we packed up and went to Coco’s for breakfast LOL. Another lesson learned.

PROS:

The fire.
I think I could sit and watch a campfire for hours. Literally. I loved it. I loved cooking our hot dogs over it, I loved roasting our marshmallows over it for our smores, I loved just sitting around it and feeling the warmth.

The view.
So many stars, it’s just incredible.

The quiet.
BIG fan of the quiet. Hubby took our nephew to get the firewood and Kirby and I sat in the tent and just hung out. I could totally hang there for a long time. And without having to worry about bugs I could actually relax.

Hanging out.
We threw a football around, went for a short hike, and just hung out. Fun and relaxing.

The kids.
The boys had a blast, even Kirby who is afraid of everything like his mom!

So will I ever do it again? Well, probably. Ideally I’d love to not actually “camp” but rent a camper and spend the nice times during the day outside and enjoy the fire at night but then go inside to sleep!