Our First Time Camping with Kids
A few months ago, I had the idea to go camping over Ryder’s birthday and Father’s Day weekend since they both fell on the same Sunday this year. Ryan was all-in on the idea so I booked us a campsite at Dan Nicholas Park in Salisbury, North Carolina.
(The boys’ ocean animals pajamas are Janie & Jack and were a gift from my mom! We LOVE their pajamas because they have them in sizes that allow all three boys to match and the quality passes the hand-me-down test.)
After our first visit to Dan Nicholas Park in 2021, Ryan and I agreed it would be the perfect spot to attempt camping with our boys one day for a myriad of reasons. Truth talk: We basically we selected this location because it’s only an hour from our house so it would be easy enough to pack up and head home if we were all miserable… but we also selected it because there is SO much to do at this little gem of a park. (If you’re local and haven’t been, add it to your “must visit” list!)
If you camp on the weekends at the park you’re required to book two nights but the sites are only $30 to reserve so we booked Friday and Saturday night but opted to only stay one night. This was a great decision for our family as first-time campers because we arrived at our campsite after Chase’s swim meet on Saturday morning feeling rested, energetic and excited about the day and night ahead!
Ryan and I looked at our first camping trip as one big roll of the dice since we arrived at our campsite with some things we had never used before including our tent, the sleeping bags and chairs for the boys I found at ALDI on Thursday for $12, our air mattress and a pop-up griddle. I honestly was dreading putting up our tent because I have vivid memories of assembling our family’s tent with my parents as a kid and remember the process being L-O-N-G. (We all crack up about these camping memories now! Truly camping with my mom, dad and sister are some of my absolute best memories as a kid and one of the reasons I really, really hoped our boys would love camping as a family, too.)
Well, I’m not sure if it was my childhood brain dramatizing the process of tent setup or if tents have come a long way in three decades or what but Ryan and I had our tent up in less than 10 minutes. Truly! My mind was blown and I immediately texted a picture of our tent to my parents and sister because I didn’t know it was possible to erect a tent in less than two hours.
Ryan gets ALL the credit for selecting this slam dunk of a tent for our family and we both said we give it an 11/10 rating. (This is the exact tent Ryan bought on super sale on Black Friday last year but this one is less expensive and looks to be the exact same tent but in a green color.) The tent is BIG which was important because we want it to grow with us as the kids get bigger but it also worked really well for us now as a family with young kids. It has two zip-down dividers inside that allow the inside of the tent to be divided into three sections which was hugely helpful because it let us put Rhett to bed on one side and then stay up later with the big kids. (Ryan and I slept in the middle section.) We just made sure to pack a noise machine to drown out additional noise and Rhett was exhausted enough from skipping his nap on Saturday that he went right to sleep in his pack ‘n’ play. Here’s a glimpse at his setup:
But backing up a bit to our arrival at the campground…
Once our tent and chairs were all set up, the boys were itching to get out and about and explore. Prior to camping, we had never visited the opposite side of the lake at Dan Nicholas Park where all the campsites are located. We loved walking around the lake and spent a lot of time fishing, looking for turtles, freaking out over all the little ducklings and catching and releasing frogs and toads. Our creature-loving boys were in heaven!
We loved the fact that Dan Nicholas Park’s campsites are dog friendly so Pepper could join our gang but this made some of the activities within the park a little complicated to enjoy as a family since a lot of them do not allow dogs. This is totally understandable (and smart) and Ryan and I made it work by swapping “Pepper duty.” Pepper joined us all over the park but stayed with Ryan while I rode the small train with the boys and stayed with me while Ryan did the carousel with the boys.
Prices at Dan Nicholas Park are like a walk back in time and everything from tickets to ride the train and carousel to tickets to Rowan Wild, the small nature facility located within the park, are only $.50-$1.00.
The gem mining at Dan Nicholas Park is always a major highlight for our boys and we sprung for the big bucket (this is not $1.00 — haha!) and sifted through lots of sand to find big gems, a large shark tooth and other surprises.
After gem mining, we spent some time at the playground before walking back to our campsite to make an early dinner.
We packed all the fixings for hot dogs and brats on our griddle and dug in!
Once we were nice and full, we made our way back to the lake to catch and release tadpoles and fish a little bit more before the boys requested a trip to the splash pad!
The boys said the splash pad water was freeeeezing but that didn’t stop them from running through the streams of water over and over again. We packed pajamas to change into after they were done splashing around and began the walk back to our campsite.
Chase and Ryder noticed a lot of people walking around with ICEES and after one man heard them talking about the ICEES they saw he yelled out, “Over there! Go get you one!” and directed us to the new concession stand located at the top of a large hill. Our boys are shave ice-obsessed but ICEES were a new thing for them and let’s just say they were a huge hit. I also forgot how good a cherry ICEE tastes on a hot day and it was a nice little treat to enjoy on the walk back to our campsite.
By the time we made it back to the campsite, the boys were all amped up on ICEE sugar and the thought of making a big fire in our fire pit. As Ryan got the blaze going, the big kids noticed the campsite that backed up to our site was still vacant and got the idea to build their own “brother fire” (no grown ups allowed) a few feet away.
They were so proud of themselves but came back over to our fire once they saw we had all the supplies for s’mores.
(Our s’mores roasting sticks were Christmas gift to Ryan a few years ago and a custom order from this Etsy shop.)
Everyone loaded up on s’mores and we could tell Rhett was fading fast so we bushed our teeth and all headed into the tent to pretend it was bedtime for everyone while we tucked Rhett into his pack ‘n’ play and said goodnight. He was out within a couple of minutes!
Once the sun went down, the nighttime camping fun began! We caught fireflies with the big kids and Chase’s highlight from the camping trip occurred near the shore of the lake at night when he used Pepper to help him locate countless toads to catch and release by the light of his flashlight.
We then cuddled up by the fire and told stories until Ryder and I could barely hold our eyes open anymore.
Once we made our way into the tent, the boys snuggled into their sleeping bags and I read all of one chapter in my book on my Kindle before we were all asleep.
Sleeping through the night didn’t happen for anyone but our first night tent camping went pretty well all things considered. We were all awake a few times thanks to a hooting owl that made Pepper bark, Rhett crying out once, Chase needing to use the bathroom and Ryder getting twisted up in his sleeping and needing help to get settled back in. I woke up on Sunday feeling far from rested but would still absolutely chalk up our first overnight camping trip as a success.
Plus, Ryder got to wake up in a tent as a FIVE year old!
We hung out at the campsite, the lake and the playground at Dan Nicholas Park for most of the morning on Sunday.
As we made the drive back home, the boys talked over and over again about how much fun they had during our camping trip. No one slept particularly well but no one really seemed to care about that at all when compared to the overall experience of camping with our crew. Chase and Ryder are already asking when we can go camping again (Rhett just wants to ride the train again) and we’re already eyeing dates for a fall camping adventure!
