Summer Camping: A Three Year Old's View

Summer Camping: A Three Year Old's View

For a year or so now my husband has been talking about getting a camper for our truck so that we can take our daughter camping.  Both he and I grew up camping, I real camping in a tent and he light weight camping in a camper or trailer.

I have to admit, we borrowed his parents 5th wheel a couple time while we lived in Wyoming and I can't blame him for being a light weight camper.  With the ever present threat of bears, mountain lions and the comforts of not trekking in the dark (with a flashlight that you know will run out of juice any second) to find your way to a bathroom (or bush!).  Being warm and dry on nights when it rained did not suck!  Having a bed to sleep on was not all bad and having a shower was pretty nice when stuck in close quarters for long periods of time.

He had his mind set that this was the year, our daughter is three and we believe ready to experience camping.   I asked her a few times if she would like to go camping and fishing this summer with Mommy and Daddy.  Her response 90% of the time was "can I roast marshmallows" to which I replied sure and she then agreed that camping would be fun

I told him to pick what he wanted and let me know.  He felt I needed to view the options in person and get a feel for the different sizes so off we went to the Portland RV show this past weekend.  Before leaving I asked Bean if she wanted to go look at campers, her response was "yes, can I roast marshmallows".  What is it with this girl and marshmallows?  Of course I responded, not yet but maybe if we go camping this summer.

I thought we were going to look but we ended up purchasing the cute pop-up camper above from Apache Camping Center. 

As soon as we got to the show, Bean was asking if it was camping time so that she could roast marshmallows (seriously, again with the marshmallows!).  Then for some reason she started thinking that Camping was a movie or show and every sound on the PA she started talking about how we had to get going because Camping was starting and she didn't want to miss it.

After we got home she was even more confused since we did not bring a camper home with us.  Here is the conversations that followed that evening:
Conversation #1
Bean: Is it camping time?
Me: No, not until summer
Bean: Is it summer?
Me: Not, it is spring
Bean: Can I have marshmallows?
Me: When we go camping
Bean: Next week?
Me: No, this summer
Bean: Hmmmm (runs off to play)

Conversation #2 (about 2 hours later)
Bean: Where is my fishing pole?
Me: At Grandma and Grandpa M's
Bean: Well then how am I going to fish? (in a snarky tone of voice, where did she get that?  I have no idea!)
Me: We will get you a new one for here
Bean: Then I want a Hello Kitty pole! (very matter of factly!)
Me: OK, I will see if we can find one

I have been avoiding the topic of camping since the weekend because I can not find any more ways to tell her she can not roast marshmallows for another 3 months.  I am sure there will be more conversations about marshmallows, fishing and many more topics after we bring home our new camper next weekend and every day after that when she sees it in the back yard.

Man it is going to be a long 3 months! I might crack and let her roast the darn marshmallows in the back yard just so she will stop asking!

**Disclaimer: This post is a personal story about my family, it was not sponsored in anyway.**