When we moved up to Lake, MI, we knew we wanted to have some sort of housewarming party. (We’ve done it every time we moved and we’ve moved a handful of times.) We also do a camping weekend with friends at Rifle River every year, so we thought it could be fun to combine the housewarming party with a camping weekend. Especially since we are so far away from the majority of our friends now.
So we planned two separate camping weekends. One for adults only and one that would be family friendly. Unfortunately, the adult only weekend didn’t turn out well. We only had one couple show up and Chris took it kind of hard. (It also happened to be his birthday weekend.) After that, we seriously considered cancelling the family camping weekend. But we decided to proceed with it anyway and just see who showed.
We were pleasantly surprised with the outcome. We had 3 families and one additional couple come from downstate, and several people from our area stop by. All together we had about 10 adults and 9 kids and it was such a great weekend!
We played outside almost the entire weekend. The kids played with the splash pad, rode mini dirt bikes, drove around in little Power Wheels, rode with the adults on the four-wheelers, played in the mud, played with Bridget, bounced in the bounce house, jumped on the trampoline, attempted to watch outdoor movies on the projector (that was a bit glitchy for a bit) and made s’mores. They had such a great time while the adults enjoyed catching up and (especially the men) acting like kids themselves, playing with the “grown up toys” (four-wheelers, trucks, side-by-side, dirt bikes, etc).
We are hoping to make this an annual thing, and already have some good ideas on new things that we want to add/do next year. As long as people are willing to come and stay, we are willing to host!
What are some good ideas/things we can do/plan with the kids for next year? Do you have any camping traditions? Leave a comment below and let me know!
Thanks for reading!
xoxo
Crystal