Last week, we drove a Chrysler Town & Country that was loaned to us by Chrysler. The day the van arrived, we headed out for our first camping trip ever. Great way to break in a new car, right? Hours after they dropped off the van at our house, we packed it up with our camping supplies, suitcase, cooler, and tons of other bags we needed to make a two-day camping trip with two young kids stress-free. After picking up our girl from school, we drove straight to Disney World and checked into our campsite.

Though I was hesitant to go camping and weary of how our first camping experience would go, I actually enjoyed our time. It was nice to have a little quiet and just hang out as a family. We grilled, roasted marshmallows and made s’mores with Chip and Dale at the campsite’s nightly campfire sing-a-long, and had a blast at the pool. Our quick two-day camping trip was full of fun activities and we’re actually looking forward to going back again. Who would have thought?

One of the nights, a frog was sitting right smack in the front of our tent’s entrance. You might not know, but I thoroughly despise frogs. They completely gross me out and give me chills, so even looking at one freaks me out. Having one in front of the tent made me run the other way! Thankfully, knowing how ridiculous I am about frogs, my husband found a stick and helped the frog find another spot to relax. He then said, “I made the scary frog go away – you can go in the tent now!” To which I responded, “Good! Because I was about to sleep in the van!” And, I would have…no lie.

The Chrysler Town & Country was spacious enough that we could have all slept in it and avoided the Florida heat. But, that would have defeated the purpose of going camping. This mini-van also fit all our camping supplies and helped us entertain and contain baby boy while we set up and cleaned up our camp. Otherwise, we would have been chasing him around and only one of us would have been able to actually set up. For our camping trip, it was definitely useful to have the Town & Country on-hand and helped ease our trip.

I have to say that neither my husband nor I have ever been mini-van fans. We’ve just never seen ourselves driving one. But, I can see why it’s a vehicle that many own and can even see it as a must for larger families. In fact, it seems that people do like the Chrysler Town & Country mini-van, so much so, that we ended up parking next to TWO other Town & Country vans on the last day of our Disney World visit.

I’ll be sharing two more posts about our experience with the Chrysler Town & Country. In a few days, look for info on the Chrysler Town & Country features we loved! In the meantime, if you want more information on the Chrysler Town & Country, check them out on Facebook, Twitter, and the main site.

Disclosure: We were loaned a Chrysler Town & Country mini-van for one week in order to facilitate this review and share our experience.

Our 4 year old daughter has been wanting to go camping the last few weeks. For some reason or another she’s got camping in her head and has brought it up quite a few times recently. She probably got it from TV or perhaps from her preschool – what with them learning about summer activities and such.

The problem? We’re not exactly what you’d call a camping kind of family. I’ve only ever done it once in my life – not by choice – and the hosts had a nice RV in which I slept. I’m just not a get-intimate-with-earth kind of girl.

That said, I could see us parking a little trailer or mini-RV on some campgrounds and spending one (do I dare stay two?) night “camping.” But, of course, we have no plans to buy a trailer/RV anytime soon. So, when our baby girl says she wants to go camping, the answer she gets is obviously no.

Being the clever little girl she is, the other night she answered back by saying, “let’s pretend we’re camping.” Thankfully, I have a creative husband who immediately thought up a way we could do this in our own house. After he arrived home from work and we had all eaten dinner, the man proceeded to set up “camp” in our living room.

He set up a toy tent she already had, brought out some marshmallows, chopsticks, and a flashlight. (Bare with me, this will all make sense soon.) He then stacked some of her books on the floor and stood an empty paper-towel roll in the middle to hold the flashlight. We sat down on the floor, used the chopsticks as our wooden sticks and “roasted” our marshmallows over our fake flashlight-campfire. Of course, we went around and made up stories as we ate our marshmallows.

Our baby girl was not just happy we had gone “camping,” she was ecstatic. I think it was even better than the real thing - no bugs, no allergies, no mess. And, I had found a new appreciation for my dear husband. Don’t get me wrong – I always appreciate him. But, seeing how fast he could whip up a camp-site, please our daughter (and me), and watch him be an all-around great father while roasting his marshmallows…well, it touched that soft spot I have in my heart for him.

Now, if he could just whip up an in-home spa for me, I’d be one happy mami!