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It’s been a while since we’ve been camping, so we decided to flex that muscle again and took the kids to New River State Park for a one-nighter in October. It was the best we could do as the state parks and quality camp sites fill up in the fall.

We’ll call it a success. We didn’t forget anything critical, though we did slightly underestimate how much food to bring (Nate can do some damage now).

The site was clean and we lucked out with the weather — beautiful, clear night and not too hot. We didn’t raft or canoe, but we took advantage of the hiking trails near our site and checked out the river.

We didn’t bring the dogs, but might re-think that for next time. I think they would behave themselves and sleep peacefully at night. Rachel is skeptical. Our one big whiff was bringing an air-mattress with a broken plug. The kids slept fine, but Rachel and I decided our days of sleeping on the ground are behind us. Forever.