We bought a camper!

Camping is one of our family's favorite activities.  We love getting away for the weekend, hanging out with friends, enjoying nature, eating bad food (and by bad I mean bad for you), having campfires, roasting marshmallows, making s'mores, and letting the kids be kids.
Lately we have been camping with two families in particular, the Collins and the Burresses.  They have kids the same ages as Halle, Arden, and Jack, and are a lot of fun to hang out with.

Rylee and Halle on the "horse tree"

We have been tent campers for years, and have no problem roughin' it.  I'm not high maintenance so I'm okay with tinkling in the bushes if I have to, ha!  We have one cheap Ozark Trail tent that I bought Brian about 7 years ago for Father's Day.  Even though it's cheap, it has held up just fine for us, and has seen about 20 camping trips. 

We would probably still be tent camping if we didn't have to keep up with the Jones' (aka the Burresses.)  They had to get fancy on us and go buy a pop-up camper.  We went camping earlier in the year with them, and they were the only family not sleeping on the ground.  We ooohed and ahhed over their AC, electricity, and indoor plumbing.  We were also jealous that their bedding didn't "pop" in the middle of the night (a very funny story in itself.)  With me sleeping on a faulty air mattress in a tent and six months pregnant with #3, Brian and I decided that it was time for the Hargraves to upgrade to something more family friendly.  So with our next camping trip already planned for Labor Day weekend, Brian and I said we would definitely have a camper by then.  With it being January that gave us several months to find one, right??

Time went on for the next few months and the camper idea got put on the back burner.  We looked periodically at a few used campers on Craigslist, but weren't impressed with our finds.  Each time we started out excited about looking, but always ended up disappointed.  As Labor Day quickly approached, we unenthusiastically settled with the idea of just camping in a tent again. 

The Thursday before Labor Day I got on Craigslist one last time just to see what was for sale.  With it being the peak of camping season and hunting season starting, campers were a hot commodity.  But.... everything was either too expensive, already sold, or not in good condition.  Frustrated, I closed the computer and went on about my day.  A few hours later I decided to check just one more time.   I said a little prayer before opening the computer again.  Low and behold, a pop-up camper in great condition at the right price had posted just seconds before!  AND it was located 5 minutes away!  I immediately called the owner to set up a meeting time.  He wouldn't be home until midnight and would only be around until early morning.  We agreed that Brian would call him soon and confirm the details.  Brian called him an hour later and they decided to meet up very late that night..... at midnight when the guy got home from work!  It was either meet late or meet about 5:30 the next morning.  We were quick to jump on it because we knew we were getting a good deal.  Plus, the guy had received 8 calls from other interested buyers between the time I called and the time Brian called.  Some guy even offered him more than the asking price and told him to tell Brian that "something came up and could no longer sell it."  The owner was a good ole country boy who kept true to his word, so he honored our deal anyway.  At 2 am on Friday morning Brian pulled back into our driveway with a camper in tow.   We were officially camper owners!  We headed out of town early Saturday morning for our camping trip.


Old pro, Rusty Jones Burress, helps Brian pop up the camper for the first time

All set up!

As the classy folks that we are, we realize that pop-ups aren't exactly high society.  They are the peons of RVs, but right now a pop up is ideal for us.  It is perfect for us in this season of our life and our family of 5.  We especially like the fact that we can store it in our garage rather than a storage facility.  We ended up buying a 1999 23 foot Scamper.  It has a king, queen, full, and twin bed.  It has an indoor/outdoor stove, a sink, great AC, two tables, and a small potty.  We actually only have a queen sized bed at home, so we joke that our camper's king bed is luxury! 

Why yes we are super classy.  You can tell by Arden's dirty face and her unintentional bangs.  Ha! 

Labor Day was an excellent weekend to have a camper.  It was hot during the day so it was nice to go inside and cool off in the AC.  We were able to lay the two babies down for naps out of the heat.  Our AC blew very cold and kept us comfortable at night.  We ended up getting a twenty minute downpour on Saturday that soaked everything outside.  We were very thankful for our camper at that moment!  The Collins' tent flooded in that small amount of time so they shacked up with the Burresses.  They won't be tent camping again!  

This camping trip was lots of fun as usual.  We camped at one of our favorite campgrounds, Livingston State Park.  We enjoyed Alicia's jalepeno dip and Amanda's homemade salsa, among other yummy food.  We went to a local old-fashioned ice cream shop to cure our sweet tooth.

This is my favorite picture from the trip

Jack about to get hosed down outside.  You can tell he's thrilled.

 During the day the big kids rode their bikes all over the campgrounds. It makes us adults happy that the kids can go explore and stay out until dark like we did growing up. 

kids enjoying the outdoors

Dalton and Arden trying to figure out what to do with the blue thing.

  The little kids spent many hours playing in Rusty's truck bed.  

Rusty's truck bed and a rope provides hours of entertainment for the little kids.


After dinner Rusty laid out an air mattress in the back of his truck and the big kids enjoyed an outdoor movie on the laptop.  Little kids skipped their naps and wore themselves out.  That meant they went to bed early and gave the adults kid-free time to hang out, play games, and laugh it up.


We plan on traveling more and exploring different campgrounds to get good use out of our new purchase.  We are no longer limited to the temperate months since we have AC and a heater, so we will be camping a lot.  Well gotta go, I'm off to sell my tent on Craigslist!  :)