I once thought about making a photo blog called “Oh the places I’ve peed.” Nature can offer some pretty scenic restrooms!! Much better than the four walls your use to at home, and light years better than the experience you get from most public bathrooms.

If you read this blog I’m guessing you have no problem peeing in the out-of-doors. But I bet you know someone who does, it’s a pretty common hang-up for lots of women. If you do know such a woman, please send them this video.  I laughed when I watched it, only because I think Jessica (from bring-the-kids.com) is so awesome for actually making it.

And don’t worry, she’s wearing spandex…

I’m not that in to campgrounds. They make me feel claustrophobic, you have neighbors, you can hear them, your dog has to be on a leash, you have to pay, you feel bad for peeing outside your tent in the middle of the night.  I always feel like I need to keep my kids quiet… and it’s just sorta stressful for me.

I go camping to get away from the world.

This is why I love camping on public lands. You can pretty much set up camp wherever you want, which is technically known as ‘dispersed camping‘. I have topo maps of just about every state in the west for the sole purpose of knowing exactly where to find Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land.  I pour over the maps, until I’ve located the perfect obscure road. (more…)

This past week my friend Amber and I planned a camping trip. Our hope was that it wouldn’t be like your regular run-of-the-mill camping trip. We wanted to create a family style Burning Man festival. We live in Nevada, so it seemed only fitting, and we hoped to add a little of that Burning Man creativity, pizzaz, and chaos (I like to think we nailed the ‘chaos’ part pretty well).

What we got instead were 35 MPH winds. We couldn’t camp in the Burning-Man-esque dry lake bed we’d picked out because the wind was too strong.  If we’d made a burning man, we would have watched him take flight across the desert soon after.   Our hot dogs would have dried out before they got to the fire pit.  And the materials we’d brought for art projects would have scattered across the desert like New Year’s confetti faster than you can count down from ten.  We had to opt for a sheltered rock cove and a low key evening instead.

I’m proud to say we stuck out the camping trip despite the never ending wind, though Amber and I were somewhat disappointed. The kids, on the other hand, could have cared less. They ran around the rocks pretend-shooting each other for hours, took advantage waves created by the wind at the lake, flew kites, hunted for bones, mastered the giant sling shot, and ate dust while taking rides on the tailgate of the truck. I suppose we made due.  I suppose they’ll remember it fondly anyway, burning man or not.

I managed a few pics.

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When we had our giveaway a few weeks ago one of the most mentioned camping tips was to make some sort of camping box. A large waterproof tote that holds the majority of your camping supplies. The idea behind such a box is that you always have the bulk of your gear packed and ready to go. I could not agree more.

The problem is that it’s hard to keep ALL your camping gear together all the time (because a lot of stuff gets used for day adventures as well).  Some stuff gets put away between adventures, but some stuff we’ve bought two of; it’s worth it to buy an extra set of supplies and make a kit that ALWAYS stays together.

I’ve already done posts that list out all the items needed to make:

1. A Mobile kitchen: a bin that houses all our cooking essentials and a few other odds and ends.
2. Mini Survival kit:  a go-everywhere kit with random survival and medical supplies (although we still also bring a larger first aid kit).

You can also easily make dedicated camping kits for personal hygiene and dog supplies (see lists below).

To make packing the rest of the gear easier, we try to keep most if it together. We turned a corner of our garage, and a corner of our guest room closet into ‘gear closets’.  They house the aforementioned camping kits, as well as our sleeping bags, sleeping pads, tent, tarp, climbing/kayaking gear, backpacks etc. When it’s time to pack, everything is easy to find.

When preparing for a camping trip we throw our mobile kitchen and survival kit in the van and use the checklist below (download a PDF of this Ultimate Camping Checklist here) to gather/remember everything else. (more…)

Our family tent is currently an older REI Half Dome 4, it’s worked nicely for us over the past 6 years. We currently sleep 2 adults, 2 kids and a dog quite comfortably. I suppose we can even fit the new baby in there for awhile, but eventually we’ll need an upgrade.

I’ve been thinking about what kind of tent to get for the next phase of our lives, so when Joe got an email from a friend last week (hi Dave) asking him for advice on choosing a family tent, I realized I wasn’t the only one stewing over this. And thus, this post was born.

Here are a few things to consider when choosing a tent.

1. What kind of camping are you going to do?

• Backpacking (or river trips): Obviously you will need to consider the weight and size quite seriously.
• Car Camping: You can get something more roomy and a little heavier, but make sure to consider how much       space you’ll have available in your  vehicle.
• Road trips: You’ll be putting the tent up and down a lot (sometimes in the dark, often by yourself while your spouse tries to keep the kids from running through a cactus patch), so make sure to get something with a simple design so it’s easy to set up. Also, campsite sizes will vary if you’re moving around a lot, so pick something on the smaller side.
• Stationary camping: If you’re setting the tent up once, in a place your familiar with, and staying put you can choose a tent that’s bigger and more complicated to set up. (more…)

It’s been said that one of the major obstacles of camping with kids is how to clean them up at the end of the day. While I don’t have any magic formula for keeping kids from getting dirty when camping (since playing in the dirt is kind of the point) I have learned a thing or two about cleaning them up so you don’t have to put a filthy kid to bed in the tent.

Usually you can get away with a simple wash down, #1 or #4. But then there are those occasions when your child’s skin color has changed dramatically, they stink, and/or they have sand and poofy dirt in places that just seem uncomfortable. This may or may not take a few days to accumulate. For those occasions you may need to bust out #2 , #3 or #4. (more…)

We took a trip to the Redwoods over Memorial Day. It was beautiful, not as crowded and rainy as I thought it would be, but a little on the cold and windy side. Still, a wonderful trip with my sister and her family. Ari and his cousin had a blast! As I was previewing photos from the trip there were two that made me laugh out loud, so I had to share.

#1 My first thought when I saw this photo was “wow, what a great shot!” Then I looked closer. Can you tell what’s wrong here? (FYI, click on the photo, it should get bigger).

I know! I had no idea they were playing with lighters until I saw this photo! It’s a good thing they don’t know how to use them for anything other than swords. Learn from my mistake on this one…

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I grew up camping quite a bit with my five siblings and my parents.  I remember splashing in creeks, going on hikes and bike rides, rigging up rope swings, making huts, catching snakes and cramming into a tent when the sun went down.  I look back on these memories with great fondness, and I know this must be why I seek out the same opportunities for my own children.

HOWEVER, I realize now, with only two small boys, how challenging it must have been for my mother to keep six of us (three girls and three boys) semi-clean, fed, happy, and on the radar.  I was curious to see how she did it.  Never, in all the many times that we went camping, did it occur to me that she was looking forward to the drive home more than she was the next round of freeze-tag-in-the-cactus-patch.

Why did she do it?  Why did she take us again and again when it was so exhausting?  I found the answer inspiring, and I think it might appeal to my readers who don’t naturally take to the idea of sleeping on the hard ground and taking baby-wipe-showers.

I am thankful everyday that my Mother (and Father) created for us the opportunities to experience the outdoors, no matter how hard it was on her, and I appreciate her optimistic outlook, always willing to go along for the adventure. So, it is with great honor that I present to you, an interview with MY very own OutsideMom.

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Note: As per the discussion on facebook, this article does indeed end with the photo of a dog eating out of Dutch Oven with a cone on it’s head.

For me, cooking outside is either a complete nightmare or a wonderful delight.  It all depends on the weather (want a little food with your sand? Anybody feel like stepping out of the car and into the rain to see how the chili is doing?), your mood (who wants to make fajitas after coaxing kids to walk three miles in seven hours?), and the mood of those who will be eating your food (come on, son.  One more bite and then you can roast marshmallows).  For those moments when the stars align, the children are happy, the cook is motivated, and the weather is gorgeous, consider the dutch oven.  Why?  Let me tell you. (more…)

Last week was my Birthday.

When I turned 30 I started the tradition of spending my birthday camped in a really cool spot. Just about every year we HAPPEN to choose a location within a 100 mile radius of where my best pal Olivia is doing field work. This years destination was the southern portion of Death Valley. The plan was to camp, hike, hang out, cook my birthday cake in a dutch oven, share the recipe with you… It was going to be great.

Then it got cold. And windy. And my kids got sick.

We did make it to Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge to check out the pupfish. We thought that maybe we could find a pocket of calm somewhere around there. Nope. After returning to the van in 60mph winds and with dirt in our eyeballs putting up a tent was deemed impossible. Could we sleep an extra adult in the van? No.

Doesn’t this look like great camping weather? Even K-So (our dog) is squinting!Note: The following galleries are full of cell phone pictures. Pretty sure I jinxed the trip by leaving my camera home. Thankfully I discovered Instagram, the coolest photo app ever.

We ended up in a hotel in Pahrump Nevada. I know. I know! At 33 years old am I finally growing soft? (more…)