Father / Child Camping

A month or two ago, a co-worker of mine mentioned his annual trip into the Fränkische Schweiz with his friends and neighbors for their annual Father / Child camping trip. I had wanted to go camping with Quinn for quite a while, and this seemed like the perfect first camping adventure for Quinn.
When my co-worker invited me, I accepted the invite and started the planning. I got a kids book about camping (to introduce Quinn to camping and to try to excite him a bit) as well as his own kids sized folding camping chair.

There were 25 fathers and over 40 kids in total. Needless to say, Quinn and I were overwhelmed, but had a blast. He also liked getting to eat with his hands (even though he still ate with plastic utensils...).

I even brought his favorite stuffed animals so he felt at home in the tent.

The campsite was beautiful, but a bit far from toilets, which caused some issues when Quinn had to poop (I got to carry him, running, to the toilets). He really did love peeing in the bushes.

On Saturday, there were lots of events planned, but nothing really for 3 year olds, so we took off to the next village where there was a 'natural' pool (looked basically like a lake next to a stone cliff) and a bobsled track (Sommerrodelbahn). He loved the bobsledding, but the pool was a bit cold.

He didn't get much sleep on Friday night, and was constantly in motion with the other kids on Saturday. He was wiped out, and actually slept until 9am the next day (a record, I think). I was also very grateful for this long morning, since Quinn woke up at 6am the day before.

All in all, the weekend was a blast. Quinn had a great first experience camping, and I had a great time as well with him and the other fathers / kids. It is also very nice to get to spend so much intensive time with Quinn, and I'm looking forward to when Emily can join us.