Our Camping Staycation Thanks To Coleman!

If you remember, I had blogged that we were going to have ourselves a camping staycation here in our backyard thanks to Coleman! It took forever between DH's schedule and the weather not co-operating - waterproof tent or not, it's no fun to camp in the rain with kids - but here are some pictures from the super fun time we had! (Of course, the bonus was when we had to use the bathroom, we didn't have to trek yonder. LOL)

(I apologize for some of the less than thrilling outdoor photos in this post - it was dusk when I started snapping some of them!)

I love camping. I started camping as a baby with my parents - my father is a former Boy Scout leader and would take me along. When I turned 18, I started backpacking across the US and Canada, and I had a BLAST! I've been trained to understand that good equipment means everything - if you pick a lousy tent and it rains, you'd better be ready to get wet, and you're going to be miserable. You'd also better know how to take care of your equipment properly, or it's not going to last, and when it fails on you, you could be out in the middle of nowhere!

Coleman products are on my (and my Dad's!) "thrifting and yard saling bucket list" - we are always on the hunt for vintage Coleman equipment, especially their lanterns and stoves. If you take good care of it, we've always felt that Coleman's products were worth every single penny.

Here is the Coleman Sundome 6 Tent as we were putting it up. It fits six adults, so most families should have plenty of room in it!


Here it is partially set up:


See there are two doors, so the kids don't have to climb over you to go to the bathroom, or adults don't have to climb over the kids if they are staying up later. There are lots of screens too, so you'll have plenty of air and can catch the breeze at night while keeping the bugs out.


And here we go with the rain cover (this is Washington! lol) and our little "campsite" ready to go:


We had the tent set up in less than 15 minutes - DH actually did most of it himself. It's super easy to put together, even if you have never put a tent together before. Now because it's cooler, we had to do a switcheroo in the sleeping bags for our family - the Willow Creek Sleeping Bag is rated for 40 to 60 degrees that they sent, and the Coleman ones we already had were rated the same, however my daughter's Dora one? Way too thin! We tossed the Dora one over my Coleman that's a mummy style and went with that. The Extra High Queen Airbed is a gift from Heaven to us parents, LOL Even if I can handle sleeping on the ground, my back really appreciated sleeping on this! (Sadly, I think it was more comfortable for us than our bed!) And that Quad Lantern is my new love!

We even made smores in the fireplace inside, lol. By the way, it wasn't that difficult for us to take the tent back down in the morning - I think it took us about the same amount of time. (Just pay attention to how everything was in the carry bag as you take it out, so you can remember it and can make everything fit back in!)

So who says you have to go camping in the wilderness to have fun with your family? This was fun too! By the way, if you are interested in learning more about some of the Coleman products featured above, I'm planning to do some more in-depth review posts in the coming weeks, so check back!

Disclosure: Coleman sent these products to me to share my family opinion of having a "staycation" - no other compensation was given. All opinions are mine!