Ever since before we got married, my wife and I have loved camping. After we had our two kids, our camping life screeched to a halt for a bit, as we weren’t crazy about the idea of trying to get really little ones to sleep in a tent with all of the night noises and without all of the comforts of home.
Now, they’re three and five…and we’re ready to hit the woods again. We upgraded our two-person tent to a larger, family-sized one so we all have room to stretch out. In addition to our new tent and our new(ish) kids, we brought along two accessories to add to our camping paraphernalia. After testing them out at home before heading out, we were sure they’d be a hit.
The first is a Camerons Tailgating Table. For years, my wife and I used a small folding card table to hold all the essentials while we were set up in the Great Outdoors. With two tiny ones grabbing at things (and inevitably knocking them over), we wanted something with cup-holders.
Not only does the Camerons tailgating table come with cup-holders; it comes with a full-out bowl holder that’s perfect for snacks. While it’s true that this table was designed to hold beer and game-day food like nacho chips, I can say that it works incredibly well to hold anything you’d like to put in it. One day, we made a fun campsite mix of cheese crackers, pretzels, and popcorn to put in the (oh-so-giant) food bucket and the kids loved munching as they marched around, finding bugs and having my wife shout at them not to put that mushroom in their mouths.
The four drink holders work just as well for a beer as they do for a juice pack or a water bottle. Best of all: the insulated cooler underneath meant that no one had to get up and open a separate cooler when they wanted another cold drink.
From a man with kids, I can tell you that this table is sturdy and will not tip over. Trust me. It was tested multiple times.
It folded down and was light and easy to carry back and forth from campsite to car, too, which means we’ll actually use it again.
The second new item we tried was a Camerons Grizzly Gear All-In-One Multi-Use LED Lantern. When you’ve got kids, you need a versatile light source. They need help with everything, so you’ll need to be handsfree as you get their pajamas on, read them a book (while holding it so that BOTH kids can clearly see ALL of the pictures, thank you very much), and tuck them in. A headlamp didn’t seem practical and I hate spelunking around feeling as though I’m wearing coal miner headgear, so a lantern it was.
The Grizzly Gear lantern is more than just a lantern, though. I’m into cool gadgetry and pretty much everything we buy nowadays is a “more than just a…” This device functions as a hands-free lantern that was bright enough to light our entire tent. It also has a removable flashlight that was perfect when I had to walk my daughter to the campground bathroom at 2 a.m. My wife can’t fall asleep without reading at least a few pages of her book, so the built-in reading light was a real plus.
The lantern runs on 3D batteries and will definitely be coming along on future camping excursions.
Altogether, I’m incredibly happy with our new camping accessories – oh, and the new table and lantern, as well. Seriously; our kids seem to love tent sleeping and adore exploring the woods, so I know this will be the first of many memory-making trips!
