Family Camping | the ULTIMATE Set Up + Experience 

My family camped every summer without fail and my parents were experts at packing and organizing for camping trips. Long years of practice in Boy Scouts by my parents was very helpful for us to be more efficient. Mom, dad, grandma and 4 kids in a Pontiac Tempest station wagon and we explored our beautiful country from Glacier park to Death Valley. Those are some of my most treasured memories of my childhood. Camping is a lifetime memory worth all the hassle of getting out of the door and finding a great spot to pitch your tent.

Three attempts to get away from the house is just about standard. And as you do this you'll find out what you use and what never makes it out of the box.... First trip out camping with the family I was 6 weeks old. I'm 70 now. It's a great thing to do with family and a wonderful way to relax.

My family did a lot of tent camping when I was a child. There were 7 of us as well. Mom and Dad did not learn to get past the stress of everything to actually enjoy it. Looks like y'all mastered having fun!

That’s always how it is for us when we go camping , takes 2 or 3 hours longer to get packed up than we think

Don't forget to dry out your tent or else it'll mold. Loved that the kids had fun camping!

Well done Justin and the Beautiful One. Your children will remember this weekend probably forever. I can remember our first family camping trip, and that was 65 years ago!

I have a master list, in three colors. Green is the stuff that remains in the camping kit always, and is stored together for easy packing. Blue is the stuff we use every day that needs to be added in. Red is the stuff we have to get/make each time (food, etc). It works. I print the list out and if we think of anything else, we write it on the list, and maybe add it to the list permanently for next time. I pack and check each item.

Home Depot, Walmart, and Cabelas has a camping stove with oven that allows you to cook like you're at home. You can hook it up to the propane canister you already have.

Thank you for taking us along! Too funny on the trips back to the house…been there done that lol….nothing like a family camping trip! Blessings guys🙏❤️

With everyone pitching in your set up, clean up, and obligatory dishes and cooking went very well. Looks like everyone, except Teddy, had a great time! So organized with your kitchen prep, hand washing, and dishes area! Loved the giggles and laughter at the lard fire, excellent lesson learned and no pork rinds were injured! I like grilled ham and cheese with tomato and red onion, but the cheese has to be cheddar. Even Lily was helping chop wood into kindling!! Glad you all had a great time! Love seeing children being children and exploring nature and trying new things! They will always find the water!! What a fun, happy, and exciting video. Next year do five days!! Thanks for taking us all along!!

Ah that looked so lovely and relaxing and yes, somehow one is always making food on a camp trip lol. That griddle is a game changer. Little Henry in his little chair looked as if he's been doing this before but poor Teddy was not happy, he will not go camping again

Hahaha. I do lists and then walk through it in my mind. Love it! Fun camping.

Fun family times. I’m glad your children are having fun. They work so hard all the time.

Great camping trip. Getting family together these days, THAT'S EXTRA! Making great memories, priceless. Sometimes in our younger years we take those things for granted, but as we get older (63), that's what we live for. Thanks for sharing with us.

I loved camping! We upgraded from a 3man tent to a Starcraft popup camper that comfortably slept 6 adults. We packed like y'all did. Every thing revolved around being comfortable well fed and having happy and entertained children. I lived in Las Vegas in those days. Even in the mountains around us it was pretty hot. Not much is too cold when it comes to kids wanting to have fun. We did loads of camping at Lake Mead and in secluded places along the Colorado River. I have upgraded to hostels and cheap motels nowadaze. Coming home was a challenge some times and we Always looked forward to the next camping trip. Hopefully y'all will love this trip enough to do it again and again

Your trips back home to get things was a hoot. Especially Teddy. 🤣😂 Thanks for taking us along on your camping trip. The camp site was very nice🥰

Some of my best memories with my children are while we were camping!! And with my parents as I was growing up! The fresh air, the water, just sitting by the fire!!! I smile every time I think of any of the camping trips during my 64 years!! Just wonderful!!!

Boy does this back family memories!. We had a little Higgins pop up trailer and one year we went to Yellowstone park 1959, year of the great quake. We were safely back in Oklahoma when it happened by one week. The funny thing we saw no bears, deer etc. The animals knew what was coming and got out of Yellowstone before the quake. But we had a blast! Glad you enjoyed the trip

Absolutely Loved the camping trip! Did a Wonderful job of setting everything up, so organized! Everything you brought was absolutely necessary & I noticed Rebecca's camp chair was a rocking chair! Love It! Don't care that you had to go back home a couple of times, you weren't far & I bet you won't forget again. I think everyone made special memories, but I think Henry had an extra special fun time!!

So proud of you dad!!!best wishes always!!!

I love how many times you guys had to come back even after having a check list. That's typical of most family adventures. At least you didn't have a "Home Alone " moment. Lol😊

My history with camping is similar to traveling....make a list for about a week or so, imagining everything I use thru my day, and pack the list. However, the more I did both, I learned to treat myself to hauling less, and then less making only the essentials to take along. So much easier on mind and tending after. Your family time out in God's world looked so fun. Hope there will be many many more...! : )

Thank you for sharing!!M. I really enjoyed watching.

So glad the kids got away from so many chores, and could have some fun.

Favorite camp fire food: dutch oven cobbler! We brought a huge amount of campfire food back home and blew a tire. Don't put all the weight over top of one trailer tire

Even though it’s a lot of work it’s so much fun and so good for everyone to get away and be outside in nature!

That full trailer looks about right. When our family of 7 we took about the same amount of stuff. We even had bunk cots for the kids.

Grew up camping and taking the state park free courses. Best thing I learned from my parents about camping was, don't touch the sides of the tent,especially during rain. It will cause it to leak. Looks like you guys had fun.

Happy campers!

lol ; This is what we do every time we go to town... Our son usually has our glasses or cell phones in hand at the drive way when we arrive back home! :) so funny!!! So good to know we're not the only ones that do this!!!

Henry is living his best life playing in that creek! Lol

Y’all are the best! Those kids are growing like weeds and seem so well balanced and happy. Camping is good for the soul:)

Already loved camping in tents with my family, it's the only way to go! Henry was a pro! Glad everyone got away to relax for a few days.

You aren’t extra, you’re just camping 🏕 congratulations on your first camping trip as a family. Camping is the best!

I love this camping video thank you for sharing with us

I remember this life family being family, I'ts like being young again in the late 60's an 70's. you guy's are great.

start off camping in the woods at the house! that way if you forget something, you can walk back to get it lol hope yall are having fun!

So nice to hear you all having so much fun

So much fun and happy memories made for the kids 🥰. You are wonderful parents 👍

You guys are so funny, I haven’t had a laugh like that in a long time..

Can not tell you how awesome it was to see your family go camping. Something you should do a lot. Maybe spring/summer months. 😉 Had fun watching and joy on kids faces was great.

I've always loved camping. It is a lot of work but, it's so much fun to relax around the fire at night.

Blessings to all!

Mr. Henry was in his element.... he's a mini Mr. Brown, next year he will start losing his shoes. 😀

Some people camp in cargo trailers, but a cargo trailer would be rather crowded for a family of 7. You can buy a Chinese electric pickup the size of that little truck that Justin pointed out.

So great you are starting this ! Definitely make it a tradition! My memories of family fishing trips on my dad’s crab boat are highlights of my childhood that I treasure now that he is gone to heaven ♥️♥️♥️

Love it ! The best way to vacation! We took 7 kids camping every time we had 4days free. We all had a blast!

Our favorite memories from when our boys were young are of our camping trips,cooking on a little hibachi, campfires and happy faces. We all loved it!!! 🌿

Family camping makes the best memories

Camping with the Family is something the kids will remember the rest of their life.

Great job, one suggestion, get an extra large tarp and , 4 cloths lines, hang tarp from trees to cover your wash station and high enough to stand under and cook! We did this for years, it was the first thing we put up. We would back the van up to the edge of it so when we opened the hatch it would connect. We left the food in the van to keep the bears away.

Baby Henry is a spitting image of big daddy (Rebecca’s dad).

Family camping is the best… been going since I was a kid (born in 1962) and raised our kids camping and now we take grandkids!!! We ALL love it 🥰 I hope you all keep going, it will become a treasured family activity for generations.

Looked like a wonderful family camping trip

May have to copy your griddle cook stove. When someone said “not a bunch of frying pans” I was on Amazon!

What a great Family Camping trip. I loves how Henry was loving it there. The way he squealed when he through the rock in to the water. He will look at the video of this family trip & like it. & all of you needed this time away. Great for you all. I miss getting to go camping.

You guys are extra and good, 👍 super organised. Hope you relax a little and have a ton of fun.

Oh my goodness how I love you guys! ❤️ Thank you for bringing joy into my life as I learn from you all! Thank you immensely for all you allow us to see and experience along with you! *and your children are SO grateful and excited!!! What a breath of God in the chaos of this world!

That’s why I quit camping. I spent the entire time cooking and washing dishes. Sweeping dirt out of stuff. I relaxed more at home.

You guys look like you had fun. I really hope you go family camping again sometime, but here's a few more tips for cooking while camping... CAMPFIRE! The camp stove shouldn't be the only thing you use. You won't get the smoke flavor of camp food into your food if you don't cook over the campfire! To cook over the campfire, you need to prepare it. Start your fire in the open area of the ring, not under the grate. The wood should be cut smaller than you have it, to make it faster burning. Save those larger pieces for night campfires, after you're done cooking. Get your coals ready then shove them under the cooking grate. Add 1-2 more pieces of wood under the grate and let them burn down to large coals. You want the coals smoldering. For cooking in a dutch oven, like you did that roast, you need to pull coals out of the campfire ring, set the dutch oven on top of the coals, then put coals on the lid. This creates heat from both top and bottom. Just replenish the coals as needed. You'll need a cast iron hook and trivet for the lid, though. Or you can use two pieces of firewood as the "trivet." The hook is to lift the lid straight up off of the dutch oven. Now, what to cook where: Scrambled Eggs: over the campfire Eggs over medium, or sunnyside up: on the griddle, on the camp stove Burgers: over the campfire Any other meat: over the campfire Corn on the cob: over the campfire (soak inside the husk, place on the grate, it steams inside the husks) Potatoes: wrapped in foil, in the coals Chopped Veggies: in a cast iron skillet, over the campfire Pancakes: on the griddle, on the camp stove Bacon: better on the griddle on the camp stove, to prevent it from burning Stews, roasts, etc in a dutch oven: Over coals, beside the campfire ring (as described above) Desserts in a dutch oven: Over coals, beside the campfire ring (may or may not need coals on the lid...see Cowboy Kent Rollins' channel for more info on this, he has TONS of camp recipes that you could adapt to GF for your family)

Beautiful family

Thanks for taking us along, it was enjoyable to watch. God bless you and your family!

Yay Rhodes family! Camping memories are the best. The time spent around the fire relaxing together is a huge life lesson. Work hard, play hard, rest, all are important in balance. Wishing you all well. ✌️🏕️🔥

Thank you for bringing us along on your trip. It was relaxing for me to simply watch ya'll having fun.

What a perfect little camp spot and great set up!

Ah camping……most of your time is spent setting up camp, cooking and cleaning up but it’s so much more relaxing than doing the same things at home! Glad you guys had a good time and now that you have some experience, improve on that for the next family camp out! My husband and I used to camp a lot and most went in September because the parks were not a crowded.

So nice to see the children out in nature! Yall did great on this camping trip! Thanks for sharing!

Thank you for sharing your camping trip. Its fun to watch you all had some relaxing time.

I watch some guys go camping as a minimalist, and then I watch Justin Rhodes go camping with everything including the kitchen sink. Both ways of camping are awesome. 🍻

I grew up primitive camping with my family. Off grid before it was a thing! You're right about the memories... they'll last a lifetime.

I enjoyed this. You guys could make this a comedy.😎🏜❤ were there actual bears in your area? That's surprising to me. Where was your bear spray?... lol Teddy would protect you...lol he probably felt real helpless in that forest. Lol. The food looked awesome!!!🥰🥰🥰 Great camping adventure!!! Thanks. My family used to camp every summer at our local Kern River. We always had so much fun. I miss those days!!!

This was so encouraging to watch. You have a really lovely family.

OHHH SNAP !! Just saw the LARD clip a much needed laughter I had. Thank you

I'm so happy he is home. He is such a strong boy. Hope he heals fast.

Thank you I had so much fun with you all.

Reminds me of Home Alone.....who or what did you forget...too funny!

My fondness memories are leaving before sun up, going camping with my dad. During those times he taught us so much about life and survival that I have used all my life. At 61 I still feel the same about the memories.

You guys are Extra….. Awesome. I was just worried about Justin’s back on the camping mattress. Glad you had a good time. A lot of work packing and unpacking

Love the content and the family !!! Looks like professional campers

What fun family time! The memories are priceless! 👍🏼💗👍🏼💗👍🏼💗👍🏼

Thanks for sharing your family adventure!

The grease fire had me laughing! Fun times. Good memories. Thanks for sharing. 🧡

so enjoyed this video. what a great experience for the children.

I love yall ❤️ so happy yall did this! Hope yall get another chance to take a weekend away again

What a wonderful camping experience! Making wonderful memories ❣️

Oh I loved this video ❤️❤️❤️❤️ such a lovely family adventure 😊

You guys did great as first time family camping. My family loved camping. We went several times a summer when the kids were young. My daughter and her family love camping. It’s strange how relaxing it is even though there’s work in cooking and setting up and breaking down. Our favorite things to do was to bring a couple board games and play as a family especially on a rainy camping trip. I’m glad you all loved it. Great way to vacation with kids. ❤️

We go camping for a week every year and keep a running list. We also have a trailer but we keep a lot of the items in bins ready to go. Every year, as we need items, we add them to the list and purchase them while camping or when we get home and the items immediately go in the bins. We have a tent and a Clam and bring chairs, bikes, kayaks, fishing gear, a paddle board, badminton set, and anything else we think we might want to do. We have an outdoor kitchen and small gas stove and burner. We stuff our big towels in our pillow cases for the first night and any cleanish sweatshirts in them once the towels are in use. Bring quarters in case the campground has a laundry station. We also bring things like an inflatable mattress (we have traitorous backs), cots for the kids so that gear can be stored underneath them, a hatchet, headlamps, walkie talkies, rope for a clothes line and other needs, at least 3 hammocks, flies to cover the kitchen and hammocks when enough trees are available. Buckets, nets, etc are also helpful. Heck, we have outdoor lights so our site looks pretty haha I could go on but this comment would be too long. Despite our growing list of items to bring, every year we add to it and it all goes in the trailer. We eat organic and grass fed but have found that when we pack food in advance, much goes to waste over time due to the coolers not keeping up with temps so now we pack dry goods, condiments, and fruit but buy meat and veggies when we get there. Fare is limited to what we can find that's organic or grass fed but we manage and find it to be much more enjoyable than packing a ton of food and being pressured to eat it. If we do bring any meat, we keep it frozen so that it's an additional ice pack. Sometimes we prepare meals in advance and the same applies...freeze and heat when it defrosts. I bought a cast iron set of cookware years ago that we use for camping only so it's always ready. We also have steel items like a coffee pot and small pot for boiling water, storage containers for leftovers, a dishpan and natural soap, scrubbies, etc. You can get great steel cups, utensils, and dinnerware on Amazon and other sites. Camping is awesome...just started watching your vid and got all excited. Can't wait to see how your trip goes!

THANK YOU! I have been procrastinating canning up my Lard. The "greese" fire was everything I was worried about. 4 hours, 8 quarts done. Pick a day when you have time and patience- open the windows. Everybody wants BLT s now!!! Love Yalll!

I LOOVVEEE this video. Reminds me of my family camping trips when I was growing up. Back then I had 7 brothers and sisters so this brought back some serious memories!

Fantastic we were camping for years in north British Columbia at glacier lakes every weekend in the summers. The water was absolutely freezing but like your kids they were in the lakes every day. I had two boxes one for cooking utensils and dish washing soap tinfoil,ect the second one was drygoods spices,can soup,coffee ,sugar,flour hot chocolate and condiments. Two coolers one frozen,hamburgers,hotdogs bacon and steak ect the other was refrigerated milk,juice,eggs pop ect. During the day was warm but night was frost kids sleep in jogging suits and we always brought our winter jackets. So many fantastic memories they still remember it as a fantastic time. Enjoy making memories ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

I love the real life and honesty 💗 thank you.

HENRY Seeing and reacting to the water is EPIC !!!!!!!

Glad you all had a good time. It's nice to get a break, and you smashed it with your packing. My one and only experience of camping was a school trip. It rained, and a 'river' ran through the tent. I swor then never to do it again! I kept my promise.

Some tips on campfire roast. Build your fireplace, seperate into two piles. One side of fire should be coals that is where your Dutch oven, cooking pot will go, you could hang it over the coals or on a metal stand and coals under pot. Other side is kept burning as that then replaces your coals. So you scoop up the coals to replace the ones dying down under your pot and add more wood to other side to create more coals. Meat should be fully seared on all sides before adding any liquid to pot. We usually would add vegetables and stock. Takes about 2hrs . On coals only it will simmer. Hope you go again as camping will teach your family some great skills. My best memories as a kid was the fishing, cooking the fresh fish and the night campfires.

, wow Justin and Rebecca y'all's good at the setting up . thanks for sharing this with us.god bless you all.

Yep! Y’all are extra…EXTRA GOOD!😊

You had a good time because you were so well equipped!! 🥸

That looked like so much fun!!! We tent camped for quite a while and now we are up to a big ole bumper pull camper. I must admit that at my age the queen sized bed sure feels good!!

Thank you! I had so much fun on “our” camping trip! I enjoyed every moment….and I jumped when that pot caught on fire! That was so unexpected! Can’t wait for our next trip….💕Cathy in Montana