Our very own FANCY camper

.

Ron and Sue. The Fancy campers who we aspire to be :)

Adam's parents have a beautiful 5th wheel and one of our favorite summer activities is going camping with them. Normally we put up a tent on their site, and then mooch off them the entire weekend :)  It's GREAT.  They have air conditioning, couches, a TV, refrigerator, microwave, bathtub, toilet, etc.  FANCY camping for those of you who are not fortunate enough to have in-laws with cool campers. However, unfortunately (for a frugal camper like myself) we have decided that the mooching has probably gone on long enough. (sad face) Especially now that this summer we will have TWO kids plus all our clutter to cram into their site.  SO... we decided a "fancy" pop up (strong on the sarcasm with the word "fancy") was exactly what we needed. This would allow us to reserve a camp site next to theirs, and keep our crap to our own camper!  Sue oughta be relieved!!!

Adam and I on our first camping trip with Ron and Sue in 2007 the weekend after we got engaged.

That is one HAPPY camper :)

Poor baby having to nap in the tent... not FANCY

Thus Adam took up his favorite hobby of stalking Craigslist's ads for a few weeks now. He was growing a bit weary when the 6th pop up camper that he was interested in sold before we could even get out to take a look.  He started to go a bit crazy threatening that he was going to purchase one site unseen, YIPES, or he was going to go without me and purchase it- double YIPES.  I did my best to keep him calm "there will be more campers posted honey... the right one will come along... it'll ALL work out etc."  But the fear was building... Adam was reaching the breaking point (because as you know once Adam decides he wants/needs something, he really wants and needs it NOW).

Adam and Jack heading out to camp. In our very own driveway. 

Then out of the blue up pops an ad for a pop up in Ottawa that needs some "minor cosmetic work," and it was CHEAP.  The scary kinda cheap where the old phrase "if it sounds too good to be true it probably is" theory comes to play.  But nevertheless we called their number (twice) and texted them (for good measure).  Once he heard back we immediately jumped in the car and headed out.  When we arrived there was already another couple looking at the camper. I was imagining all the ugly things that could happen with this scenario.  LONG story short, the people had about 20 responses to their ad in less than an hour... but we were the lucky ducks who BOUGHT it.  It was cheap enough that we figure whatever money we put into it to fix it, we will most definitely still come out ahead.  Or if we feel like bailing we can throw it back on Craigslist and likely rid ourselves of it within the hour.

No photo editing has been done, but things may appear larger and cleaner in this picture than in person...but yes that IS a sink and a stove top we have in there! Plus two queen size pop out beds.

 So we hauled our new hunk of junk home (Adam doesn't like me calling it that, but I mean it in an endearing way. I'm actually pretty excited about it!)  We popped it up in the driveway and one VERY excited 2 year old, and one very excited grown man went camping in the driveway.  Too cute :) I have a feeling this pop-up will definitely be a good source of some "memories in the making."  So far it's got a mile long list of "minor cosmetic repairs" but all in all it WORKS and it has air conditioning which is by far the most critical element if you want to camp like fancy people. 

This very pregnant mama opted out for her own bed which smells of clean linen.

Adam and I would be glad to edumacate all those who are interested on ways to be fancy when out camping... like peeing in the portable toilet (i.e. bucket) that came with our new fancy camper. Jealous now???