This post is like my recyle bin. Useful little tidbits – that have no where else to go. It might feel a little all-over-the-place. And well…it is!

No matter how prepared I think I am, I always forget something. We just hope it is a “cheap” something we can grab at the local store. Often, I just make really stupid choices. Like last weekend, I packed each of the kids only one pair of pants. My husband looked at me and said, “What on earth where you thinking.” For the record, we now have a not-just-one-pair-of-pants rule for camping. In fact, I am thinking of expanding the rule to not-just-one-of-anything rule, if you can help it.

Now many of you are adventuring on your first trip with the kids this summer. Here are some meanering tips together you started:

• National Parks really are just awesome. Choose you location carefully. Ask yourself how far is it from civilization? How crowded is the campground? How highs the elevation? What do we do there? In my experience kids rarely get bored around camp hut mom and dad do. Go someplace beautiful, exciting or relaxing…whatever you Ned cause at the end of the day you are doing a lot of work give there…make it worth it for you.
• Tylenol/Oragel/Gas drops. Need I say more? Put them on your camping list cause the law of entropy states that everything moves towards chaos. Meaning it is likely your perfectly happy kid will get that new tooth while camping…or other such dysfunction.
• Make friends with your neighbors. You will most likely be those people, the ones with kids that are loud and up early. Slightly disruptive to the peaceful camping ambiance. I find it is better to be upfront, introduce yourself, and give them an open door to come “complain” if your kids are bothering them.
• Make packing lists and check them twice. Use bins for easy camping packing and organization. Adventuroo has a printable packing list here. Or one of our readers designed aweb app that generates packing lists called Packwhiz. Check it out!