I was just looking at my other blog (my other neglectiblog wateristhesource) and saw this post i put up about an old family camping trip...good times.  If you're considering getting into camping with your family ... and you should be.  This offers some interesting perspective.  Also, just as an FYI, we camp as a family quite a bit now-a-days, probably about one a month on average.  Have a read... 

FROM WATERISTHESOURCE in 2010:

This past weekend we went on a family camping trip to Goose Creek State Park.  We try to take one camping trip a month with other friends and families.  My family consists of my amazing wife, Andrea, and our two beautiful children Miles (almost 6) and Zella (1 year, 4 months old).  These trips always have some sort of interesting challenge associated with them.  This particular trip was one of the most difficult we've had.  Things started off rough with us rushing to set camp before dark on Fri night, plus Z had some funky snotties, the temps were some of the coolest she's ever camped in (high 30s), plus she has no love for blankets or anything else over her when she sleeps, on top of this she has 2 new teeth coming in ...it was a relatively sleepless night, for us as well as our friends (sorry y'all).  The following evening we moved to a campsite further away in an effort to save our friends from the late night howls, screams, cries and other noises of discontent from Z.  However, the second night Z actually slept pretty well but we quickly discovered we were so far from our friends that we hardly saw them the remainder of the trip.  ...sad for us ;-(

All these aspects of the trip made it one of our families most challenging yet.  But taking a moment to step back during the trip as well as reflect on things a bit afterward, we were reminded that this trip was actually quite excellent despite our immediate perceptions.  First of all our whole family was camping!  That in and of itself is awesome.  We paddled our new-to-us family canoe for the first time, taking it out on 3 different little trips through both brackish and freshwater wetland swamp areas, and the open water of Goose Creek. One of our paddle trips was Miles very first night paddle and the moon was absolutely amazing! Miles also went fishing with a good buddy and caught his first fish, which we cleaned cooked and ate (awesome full-circle sort of moment)!  One of the families brought pumpkins (thanks M&M) that the kids designed jack-o-lanterns with and got to take home.  At night while trying to sleep we heard all sorts of wildlife (great horned owls, screech owls, and something that made a completely bizarre flapping noise as it flew right over top of our campsite). And finally even though we didn't see all our friends as much as we may have liked, we did still get to see them some and hang out in the woods together!

So, i suppose the take-away lesson here is that while creating these sorts of family outings has the chance of being difficult and challenging in certain ways, they also offer amazing educational opportunities and life altering moments for our kids and our family as a whole.  ...we'll keep doing 'em ;-)