Moving Up!

Last night Trevor and I purchased a tent trailer!

I am so excited I want to go camping, like, NOW!

The itch to camp might also have something to do with the wonderful 19 degrees Celsius we enjoyed yesterday.  I raked up dead grass instead of camping though, not nearly as much fun but annoyingly necessary.  My dad rented a power rake and came and scratched up our lawn with it.  Since the weather forecast was/is for rain today I had to rake up the remnants yesterday.   Clumps of wet, dead grass would not be very appealing later.  Due to various time issues (i.e. driving nearly two hours to buy a tent trailer.) I only managed to complete 4/5 of the back, but hey - I did what I could.

Back to the tent trailer purchase.

It is only ten years old.  It is in perfect condition and a great step up from a regular tent.  Not that I minded tenting.  Tenting is kind of fun.  We did it for 10 years as a couple then the last 3 with kid(s) and generally had very positive experiences. You see though, camping in the Rocky Mountains - where we camp because we're only a mere 1.5 hours away - means very cold nights and often chilly mornings until 10A.M.  As an adult who can sleep until 8:30 or 9, and when our kids slept in more, the cool mornings were a non-issue but now that our kids rise at 7 (or earlier when camping) it's hard to hang out in a tent and make breakfast for them while waiting for the air to warm up.  Last summer we invaded my parents trailer far earlier than they would have liked, but graciously allowed, in order for us to stay warm and keep the beasts kids subdued.  Then there is the all the gear.  It has to be packed and loaded and unpacked and set up each time we camp.  Now I know a tent trailer won't eliminate this but now we will be able to leave a good portion of the gear in the trailer so going camping will require less packing    Keeping food cool was also a challenge and a pain because our only option was a cooler and ice.  This trailer has a small fridge!!!  And this tent trailer also has a little port-a-potty!  Yay, no more groping for shoes and sweaters in the dark, attempting to keep the ZZZZIIIPPPP of the ten zipper from waking the others, and trekking to the bathroom in the wee shivery morning hours with Sierra.

I grew up with frequent summer camping trips with my parents and sister and I'm super excited at the ability to create the same fun memories with my own family with  little more ease than tenting!