Unfortunately for me, my family can wait -- in fact they'd wait forever to never go tenting again, except for my Mother's Day gift. It is a hand-made certificate by my daughters which clearly states that my husband and both of them will go tenting with at Clear Lake and only "minor complaining may occur in the presence of insects."

We've gone tenting as a family five times including once when I was pregnant. The last time was six years ago, when our oldest girl was nine and our youngest daughter was 18 months old. The little one couldn't understand why were all together and lying on the ground. She kept standing on her sleeping bag, saying 'Hi!" in the dark to no one in particular and then jumping up and down on the spot like she was spring-loaded.