Our first family camping trip

My parents gifted us with a Class C RV when we returned to the states.  It was their camper for 7 years and we were thrilled to have it, as it means we can tour the United States in a camper.  We used to own a small pop up camper before we left for the UK and loved it.  While in the UK the only time we went camping was with the kids scout troops in a tent and it was a very cold experience and it only confirmed my decision that I prefer to camp in a vehicle of some kind:)  Much warmer and far more comfortable.

Our camper,!!  It was fun to look at the other campsites and see what people bring, we saw satellite TV antennas, fancy fairy lights, games, specialty items of all kinds, I wanted to take pictures of other camp sites but my husband thought that was rude:).  We must be a bit strange because we don't have a TV when we are camping, for us, the whole point is to be together as a family or outside in nature.  Although the kids did bring their ipod and DS games for when we had quiet time.  We need to up our game to be a real campers as we still look like newbies at this :) we have no tables, awnings, lights or even a family welcome sign.  I am on the look out for those things.

We woke up one morning to the site of deer just across from our camper.

Loved the fact that we can hide away in air conditioning during the heat of the day to play games with the kids, read or take a nap...this was one of the hottest weekends ever with temp nearing the 100 degree mark.  I was really impressed with the tent campers out this weekend, how they managed in the heat I don't know.

There was a playground nearby for the kids to play at and their were other children around so they occasionally had children to play with.  Next time we go camping I want to bring the kids bikes as there were plenty of bike trails and kids riding bikes, but first we need to get a bike rack to add to the back of the camper.

We put a US map on our "new camper" and we will add all the states we camp in to it.

We added the state of MO.  MarioFan is getting good at locating states just by playing the ipod game "Stack the States"

We thought it looked pathetic to only have one state on our map and seeing as we have camped in other locations with our old camper,  we made the decision to add all the states we have camped in...it made us feel better:)

One of the evenings there was a ranger presentation on the various animals in the state of  MO

kids got to touch animal skulls and animal skins.

We also did 2 day trips out to the local area, which I will post about.  We really enjoyed our camper, our only difficulty was that on the third and final day of camping our air conditioner stop working, so we had to pack up and leave a day early.  The RV is in the shop and hopefully fixing it won't be terribly expensive.  We are planning a 2 week camping excursion to the southwest soon:)