People always seem to wonder where everyone sleeps when we go camping.  In a family our size, it’s an understandable question. 🙂

We always take two tents.  This time, we felt very luxurious because we borrowed a very large tent from friends that had a divider down the center, making it two ‘rooms’.  The three oldest boys slept in one room, the three girls and the toddler in the other.  (He usually sleeps in the boys’ room when we’re at home, so the girls wanted to give their brothers a break.)

The smaller tent, 8 x8, was for my husband, me, and the baby.  When we first went camping as a family about six years ago, we had five children and our youngest was a year old.  We didn’t think packing a crib was necessary, but after a night of her screaming because she couldn’t settle down in new circumstances, we learned our lesson.  The port-a-crib comes with us on every trip now, and it makes keeping babies on a regular sleeping schedule a breeze.  My husband and I each have camping cots (the older kids get camping pads on the ground under their sleeping bags), which makes it more comfy for us.  We had plenty of room in our tent, and the kids had plenty of room in theirs.  Having a separate tent to put the baby and toddler in was nice, so they didn’t interfere with each other’s naptimes. 

The tents are pretty compact when they’re packed up, but the sleeping bags and pillows take up a good amount of space in the van.  We have a certain amount of basic equipment that we own, but borrow other things – it seems wasteful to buy camping supplies that we only use for a few days a year, and then have them taking up space the other 361 days of the year. 

Avivah