the surviving Mormon couple: Why I Love Camping

Now, having lived on a luxury cruise ship for almost a year, one would think Ivan and I might be somewhat of the high maintanance traveler- but I say Nay Nay, my lofty reader- Our idea of a great vacation is a two-person tent camped by a body of refreshing water, and a dinner cooked in tinfoil over a fire!

And those are only 3 of the reasons why I LOVE Camping!
Here are the rest:

1. Making our home IN THE WILD
In case you don't already know, minimalism is my thing-
So...... give me a pop up house? ba, ba, ba, BA, ba- I'm lovin' it!

2. Nature relaxes me

Falling asleep next to a creek, waking up to a sunset across the mountains, or the case most recently- falling asleep and waking up right on the BEACH! My favorite! And this is my definition of relaxing!

3. Quality Time

While we're camping- we are so detatched from our phones, e-mails, jobs and everything else in life, there is nothing else to concentrate on other than EACHOTHER. I love it.

4. Dinner and Dessert by the Fire

Ivan and I have gotten pretty good over the years at making enjoyable meals outdoors. The night after we got engaged, we went camping with friends and I remember we made a picnic FULL of delicious food, and our friends bought s'mores and steaks and seriously, we had a feast of kings. I went camping a lot when I was younger and my parents did a really good job of having a nice variety of actual dinners- they brought a dual burner stove and we had pancakes in the morning, dutch oven stews and real desserts at night! Even when we went for a day hike, my parents would bring out Costco sized bags of nuts, fruit and candies for a "Make your Own Trailmix" activity- be careful, that it's not just M&Ms only, haha! Camping doesn't mean you have to eat only what you catch, or eat out of a can, meal planning takes time, but makes it so worth it. This is something I've been able to introduce to Ivan, who formerly did not like camping as much as I did, but now, he prefers it to hotels!