We went camping this weekend for the first time in almost four years.

Well, we went camper cabin camping. This is significantly easier than tent camping, in my opinion, but I do believe it still counts as camping.

I felt like a camping noob, even during the packing process. How many bottles of propane do we really need? What about the clothesline, can that stay behind? And we made some beginner mistakes too like leaving the chairs out overnight and therefore having wet chairs in the morning. (To be fair, the forecast said no rain, but experienced campers know that everything gets packed up under the picnic table every night.)

I brought a coffee maker, and my husband rolled his eyes but sure seemed to appreciate the fresh, easy coffee every morning. I made an effort to make decent breakfasts on the camp stove, and they actually turned out pretty well and were worth the extra dishes.

The kids found a hidden fort area near our site but out of sight, and spent a great deal of time just hanging out down there. I remember doing the same thing as a kid, exploring the forest and finding secret spaces.

All of our children are old enough to walk to the outhouse by themselves, even in the dark, and that was a major improvement to our camping experience.

We ate Pop-Tarts, the best camping snack.

My oldest fell out of a tree. He thought–for a moment–that he was going to die. Another tree broke his fall, scratching the crap out of him on his way down to the ground. If that second tree hadn’t stepped in this would probably have been an emergency room situation, so I am very grateful to that other tree and grateful that he came out with only a ton of gnarly, superficial scratches. He did appear to be in a little bit of shock when he climbed back up the hill to find us. I made him sit down and drink some cold water while we cleaned up his scratches.

The bugs weren’t great, but they weren’t as bad as I expected. I dislike the permanently dirty feeling of camping, but washing my face in cold water from the bucket every morning really helped.

Camping made me really nostalgic. As I lay awake the first night (sleep is a struggle for me all the time, but especially in new places) I entertained myself by reviewing all my camping memories. There are so many! Camping–in many forms–was a very formative experience for me. Scrubbing dishes in cold water on the ground and attempting to cook over a fire and playing card games at the picnic table reminded me of my parents and my grandparents, a long line of camping enthusiasts.

And we only needed one bottle of propane but I’m glad I brought the extra just in case!