Hi everyone!  I just joined the forum today, after finding it while searching for campgrounds in my area.

    My family and I just really started camping this summer.  We have 2 boys, one is nearly 8 and one who just turned 5.  Until now, we've had only backyard campouts.  We've set up a tent, and had a big bonfire.  It felt like camping to the boys but we were still 20 feet from our house.
    To be honest, I thought I would hate camping.  I like being outdoors, but I hate being hot when I sleep!  But my 8 year had been begging to go "real camping" all winter, so we decided to do it this summer.  So apparently, "real" camping to him involved backpacks, the woods, and starting fires by rubbing sticks together.  I talked him out of that for our first summer camping and we decided to camp at a local county park 10 minutes from our house.
    I was pretty excited about it by the time our first trip started but I really had no idea how much I was going to love it.  I loved how laid back everyone was, how unworried I was about "getting stuff done", how few times I looked at my watch and most of all, how I actually got tired when it started to get dark outside!  And my son!!  It's like he became a different kid!  My 8 year old has social anxiety (won't talk to strangers or even people he knows if he doesn't see them every day, doesn't smile in public a lot, won't get too far from mom and dad)  After the first day, he was riding his bike all over the campsite, keeping an eye on his brother at the playground and even made some friends while fishing!  The moment he said he made a new friend, I felt like I wanted to just camp every weekend if that was the effect it was going to have on him!

So we are campers now!  :baseballhat: I've been online a bit looking for other places to camp or good tips on tent/truck camping.  We have one more trip planned next month but I guess the season is nearly over for us.  We plan to ramp it up eventually.  As long as everyone is still loving it after next summer, I'd like to look into getting a small used camper or pop-up trailer.  But for now, the tents are working.

I have a feeling I'll be reading through these great threads a lot in the next few days.  Let me know if there are any specific threads I should head straight for!