so, greg and i realized that we have never taken the kids camping. are we awful parents or what? we were talking with some friends whose kids are grown and they were talking about all of the family memories they have from camping over the years. now, if you know my husband you would know that camping isn't really his thing. he was totally jaded by a childhood full of camping trips (that's all they would do) and now he wants nothing to do with it. besides, who wants to pee in the squatting position? not my idea of a vacation. however, we thought that maybe we were depriving our children of something, so we actually really considered going on a camping trip. we thought that we could go up to mt. charleston and stay a night (that's right, only one) and then we realized that we have never even opened up the tent we got as a wedding gift (8 years ago) or the sleeping bags and besides, it's getting cold outside now. so what did we do? we wanted to break ourselves into the whole camping thing, so we thought that we would take baby steps.
that's right. the tent's in our backyard. greg lined the tent up so close to the house so he could still see the tv and watch the Cubs game once the kids fell asleep. greg called a buddy and invited him to come to our "camping trip" with his kids. honestly, i am not one bit ashamed that we are totally cheating on the whole camping thing. this was the best of both worlds; sleeping outside, not as cold as the mountains, bathroom close by, and i could sleep inside in my own bed with the baby. and the kids thought it was the coolest thing they had ever seen. we roasted marshmallows on our fire pit in the backyard (so did at least have a campfire for the kids), then my friend and i went to our own homes and beds and let the men and the kids enjoy the good old outdoors. 
