The WHOLE family and I mean WHOLE family is going camping next weekend. All of this sorta came about - at least for us - because Savannah wasn't able to go camping last month because of her second surgery. My heart hurt for her that she was missing something she wanted very much. So, as any "good" mom would do, I told her daddy and I would take her camping. What??? Who said that??? What was I thinking??? I told Tim very off the cuff, "Hey, we are taking the kids camping in June." He stopped what he was doing and sorta gave me this look of what the heck did you just say? We have around 20 people here give or take a teen that may or may not be doing something with everyone. Sometimes I can't remember who said what or how the ball got rolling. I *think* our friend, Laurie, really wanted to take her family camping and had already talked to my brother-in-law's family, etc. When I mentioned we were going to go camping, I *think* it went something like - yeah, so do we, let's go together. Funny, how details get fuzzy around here. The next thing I know Laurie, Karen and I are picking a spot and a weekend. Ummm... Tim and I had one small problem... no tent. We used to have a tent a bazillion years ago. Savannah doesn't believe us, but I really do have pictures. We used it exactly 4 times. The first time was the legend of a trip with Tim's brother and sisters. (A whole post for another day.) Then we took Timmy on two camping trips and had the best time. I have no idea why we didn't keep going. My only thought is we had the money to go to Disney and stay in hotels??? Crazy, huh? Then Tim and I went on a pretty dull camping trip for our 10th anniversary. When we moved from Florida, our tent was about 13 year old and had spent the last 7.5 years in a hot, humid shed. I WAS NOT opening the bag to see how it survived. I quickly threw it in the garbage pile and didn't give it a thought. Until I realized we needed to buy a tent. When I bought that other tent back in 1995, I believe I went to Montgomery Wards with a friend. I went to the tent aisle, picked the biggest tent, took it to the check-out and paid. Simple. I didn't look all over the internet, read reviews, dream about 50 different tents or consider joining Consumer Reports. I also didn't know we needed to seam seal it before we went camping and we got really wet. This time around, I decided to use the world of technology. I looked up tents at Walmart and Target. Then Tim and I went to the actual stores to look at them. Their stock was pretty bare. And I couldn't really remember which tents I had looked at online because I didn't write it down and bring it with me. I did try calling Tim II and have him look up a few tents while we were standing in the store. That was good because one we were thinking about had terrible reviews. We left the stores empty handed on Sunday. I spent a good deal of Monday looking online. I love reading Amazon reviews. I don't ever write a review, but I love reading them. The thing is that I get consumed by reviews. I can't keep track of which one I thought good and I have to keep clicking back over and over again. I spent hours doing this. I finally narrowed it down to 3 tents. The first had a really nice rain flap thingy, 20 really good reviews, free shipping from Target. The second was from a real camping store which I think means it may be a better brand, super sale price, same size as the first tent. The third was at Amazon, super price, 12 good review, 2 feet shorter. I was tempted with the frugal one from Amazon, but Tim really didn't like that is was smaller. I was tempted with the better name brand one, but Tim didn't really love the rain flap on that one. That left us with the Target one - the most expensive one - of course! I was out for quite awhile yesterday. When I got back, I knew I had to decide. I pressed submit and ordered the Target tent. I HATE, HATE, HATE making these decisions. I never feel like I choose the right thing. I told Tim which one I chose. He said it was a good choice, but I know he would have said that no matter which one I chose. I am telling myself the additional footage and better rain flap was well worth the additional cost. I am telling myself that we will most likely Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Choosing a tent...
The WHOLE family and I mean WHOLE family is going camping next weekend. All of this sorta came about - at least for us - because Savannah wasn't able to go camping last month because of her second surgery. My heart hurt for her that she was missing something she wanted very much. So, as any "good" mom would do, I told her daddy and I would take her camping. What??? Who said that??? What was I thinking??? I told Tim very off the cuff, "Hey, we are taking the kids camping in June." He stopped what he was doing and sorta gave me this look of what the heck did you just say? We have around 20 people here give or take a teen that may or may not be doing something with everyone. Sometimes I can't remember who said what or how the ball got rolling. I *think* our friend, Laurie, really wanted to take her family camping and had already talked to my brother-in-law's family, etc. When I mentioned we were going to go camping, I *think* it went something like - yeah, so do we, let's go together. Funny, how details get fuzzy around here. The next thing I know Laurie, Karen and I are picking a spot and a weekend. Ummm... Tim and I had one small problem... no tent. We used to have a tent a bazillion years ago. Savannah doesn't believe us, but I really do have pictures. We used it exactly 4 times. The first time was the legend of a trip with Tim's brother and sisters. (A whole post for another day.) Then we took Timmy on two camping trips and had the best time. I have no idea why we didn't keep going. My only thought is we had the money to go to Disney and stay in hotels??? Crazy, huh? Then Tim and I went on a pretty dull camping trip for our 10th anniversary. When we moved from Florida, our tent was about 13 year old and had spent the last 7.5 years in a hot, humid shed. I WAS NOT opening the bag to see how it survived. I quickly threw it in the garbage pile and didn't give it a thought. Until I realized we needed to buy a tent. When I bought that other tent back in 1995, I believe I went to Montgomery Wards with a friend. I went to the tent aisle, picked the biggest tent, took it to the check-out and paid. Simple. I didn't look all over the internet, read reviews, dream about 50 different tents or consider joining Consumer Reports. I also didn't know we needed to seam seal it before we went camping and we got really wet. This time around, I decided to use the world of technology. I looked up tents at Walmart and Target. Then Tim and I went to the actual stores to look at them. Their stock was pretty bare. And I couldn't really remember which tents I had looked at online because I didn't write it down and bring it with me. I did try calling Tim II and have him look up a few tents while we were standing in the store. That was good because one we were thinking about had terrible reviews. We left the stores empty handed on Sunday. I spent a good deal of Monday looking online. I love reading Amazon reviews. I don't ever write a review, but I love reading them. The thing is that I get consumed by reviews. I can't keep track of which one I thought good and I have to keep clicking back over and over again. I spent hours doing this. I finally narrowed it down to 3 tents. The first had a really nice rain flap thingy, 20 really good reviews, free shipping from Target. The second was from a real camping store which I think means it may be a better brand, super sale price, same size as the first tent. The third was at Amazon, super price, 12 good review, 2 feet shorter. I was tempted with the frugal one from Amazon, but Tim really didn't like that is was smaller. I was tempted with the better name brand one, but Tim didn't really love the rain flap on that one. That left us with the Target one - the most expensive one - of course! I was out for quite awhile yesterday. When I got back, I knew I had to decide. I pressed submit and ordered the Target tent. I HATE, HATE, HATE making these decisions. I never feel like I choose the right thing. I told Tim which one I chose. He said it was a good choice, but I know he would have said that no matter which one I chose. I am telling myself the additional footage and better rain flap was well worth the additional cost. I am telling myself that we will most likely 
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