Camping with Kids

So I have always enjoyed camping....always meaning since high school which was when I started camping because my parents were definitely hotel people! That being said my husband seems to have lost his love of camping right around the time we took our first child camping in beautiful Banff National park at the age of about 20months. The trip was filled with beautiful sites and crazy "did that really happen?" moments. Like the "what is the smell?" moment when we discover that our darling 20 month old have crapped himself from armpits to ankles and then peed all over me and the floor while I tried in vain to clean him in the "rest stop" that didn't have paper towels. I kept telling myself while I smeared poop up and down his legs and tried to rinse him in a teeny sink, that I would find this funny someday....and you know what? I do! Never the less my husband never really found his way back to camping after that and has been shrugging off my pleas for the last two years.
Anyhow, now that husband is overseas I jumped back on the camping band wagon and joined a group of friends on a trip out to Rissers Provincial park here in Nova Scotia. The kids and I left early in the morning so as not to waste the beautiful day. We spent the first little while on the beach where my little lady found her first sand dollar. Once check in time arrived we set up camp and that's where the "fun" times began.
It was windy....really windy. Our site was just meters from the ocean and simply beautiful, but I could not get the fly onto the tent without the whole tent caving in. After several attempts with me directing my foud year old who was on the other end of our giant fly-kite, I decided to wait for back up (my poor wounded pride!) which came in the form of husbands. They got my tent turned and secured (see photographic evidence)and I knew my tent would not take flight that night. So off we went to explore our own beautiful beach with our buddies...oh what a time they had and of course three moms and no camera :(
We headed back to camp for supper time only to discover the straw that almost broke this momma's back. One of my little campers had been playing in the car while I set up camp and they left the lights on! My battery was as dead as could be and I needed to turn the cooler fridge on or risk losing our food for the next two meals, nevermind how was I gonna drive home! Once again I was "saved" by a kind husband who charged me up and got my car running. This was not going so smoothly. Thankfully after one more close call (an interior light was discovered to be one once the sun went down) that was it for downs on our trip and I can say with a bit of pride that I will gladly take my babes camping again. We had an amazing time sitting around the fire with friends, snuggling up and telling stories in the tent ("is that story real Mama?" asked a nervous little boy-o) and running through the waves. I really hope we can do it more often next year and with Daddy back by then there are sure to be more ups then downs.