The best food ever is when you are camping! I have made the exact same meals and desserts at home as I have camping and it is never as good. It’s just something about the outdoors that gives camp cooking exactly what it needs. When I am not camping I am always thinking of camping, whether it’s planning a trip or planning my camp menu.

I will try my very best to take more pictures and post my camping recipes, especially the family favorites. I love cooking over a campfire! I also love to keep things simple and easy. The less mess and less cleanup the better, after all we are camping to relax and enjoy our time together.

This blackberry cobbler is a perfect campfire dessert. You can use a foil pan or Dutch oven, it works well with either. This time I chose the foil pan, because we had been on a homeschool field trip all day and had just got back to the campground late so it was just easier as far as cleanup and prepping.

You will want to have a nice hot campfire going and if you had just cooked supper over the campfire then your fire should be good to go. We camped at Big Bone Lick Historical State Park in Kentucky this week for the homeschool field trips that we participated in. The campsites had fire rings with grill tops already on them so it worked out perfect for our camp cooking.

You will need 2 cans of blackberry pie filling, 2 four oz canned biscuits, foil cake pan, ten foil to cover your cobbler to keep ashes out and to help cook the biscuits.

Open both cans of pie filling and empty them in foil pan, then place the biscuits over pie filling.

Next place aluminum foil over pan and place over campfire for about 10 minutes. If biscuits are not a light golden brown then continue cooking checking every few minutes.

When the biscuits are a light golden brown then the cobbler is done. Allow to cool just a little bit but serve warm, if you are camping then you may not be able to serve with vanilla ice cream but you can top it with whipped cream if you’d like or eat it by itself. I promise it’s just as good without it.

Ingredients:

~ 2 cans Blackberry Pie filling

~ 2 4oz can biscuits

~ 9 x 13 foil cake pan

~ aluminum foil

Instructions:

Open the pie filling and empty them in the foil pan, open can biscuits and place on top of the pie filling. Cover the cobbler with aluminum foil and place over the campfire for about 10 minutes. If the biscuits are not a golden brown place back over the campfire and check every few minutes. Please be very careful and use fire safe gloves so you do not burn yourself. Serve warm with Vanilla ice cream or whipped topping. Enjoy!

My husband and I recently took our very first cruise. We chose the Carnival Liberty because it’s an older and more affordable ship. I had read and watched many blogs and videos on cruising to help us be prepared. Plus two of our dear friends have cruised and gave us plenty of tips and advice (thanks Regina and Stacey).

We stayed at The Country Inn in Port Canaveral and they let you park your car there and will shuttle you to the ship for a small fee. It was totally worth it to not have to worry about where to park and luggage because the hotel took care of all that as well.

When we arrived at the port we got off the shuttle and Carnival has employees everywhere directing you where to go. Our arrival time was for 1:30 and the hotel only offered an 11:15 shuttle so we had to go early but because we had purchased the FTTF (Faster To The Fun) we got to board early, not only did we get to board early but we got to go through the priority line with absolutely no wait, no lines whatsoever. So here we are getting on the ship 2 hours earlier than expected. The process was so easy. We had our passports ready even though you can use birth certificates just the same.

We were so excited, finally our first cruise. Justin had been wanting to go on one for so long and was finally getting to cash in his Father’s Day gift.

The first thing we did was take a small video and a couple of pictures of the main lobby and stairs so we could show the kiddos for when we got back home. It was absolutely beautiful inside the ship.

Then we headed to explore the rest of the ship. We found the casino, although we did not gamble or play but they had tables and chairs all along the windows so it was nice to sit and enjoy the views

We also found the most important bar on the ship. The Coffee Bar, thank goodness we had the cheers package because those lattes were expensive, but well worth because they were the best I have ever had .

We got coffee from the coffee bar every morning and took it to breakfast with us. They do offer free coffee in the buffet area but it was very very strong and no amount of creamer or sugar fixed it lol. Once we found everything we needed to, it was off to the Lido deck for lunch and relaxation. We hit up Guys burgers, which was amazing. I had heard about how good it was and that it was a must on the ship and boy was it.

After lunch we went up to the top deck where we relaxed, enjoyed the views while waiting to sail away. It was breezy and so nice. I’m not going to tell you every step of our cruise but I do want to point out about how easy embarkation was and how much fun it was just being at the port and on the ship. We hadn’t even left yet and were already having a blast.

Did I mention we got the cheers package, of course I did, get the cheers package. It’s definitely worth it.

The next day was port day which means we were going to be at the Bahamas, Nassau to be exact. We did not do an excursion because we really wanted to just enjoy the ship and the area and kinda get a feel of how it all works. However, next cruise we will definitely book an excursion. We did explore a bit and we swam in the ocean. Most people were off on the island so the ship was almost empty, which was what we wanted. That night was formal night and it was really fun to dress up for the night. My dress was more of a cocktail type dress instead of formal but so was everyone else’s so I was glad I went with that style.

Sunday was sea day so we did a lot of relaxing and eating. The food was amazing, whether it was at the dining room or buffet, it was all good

When it was time to get off the ship, we all got off by deck number. We decided to take our luggage with us, which was a good choice because by the time they called our deck (which was deck 2), we got through all the lines & got outside the hotel shuttle was there waiting to take us back to our car. It was an easy debarment process and we were in our car headed home by 7:30 am Monday morning. It was a wonderful cruise, and the staff was amazing. We can’t wait to book our next one with the whole family. The girls are really excited to be going on one after seeing all our pictures and hearing about how fun this adventure was. So with all that I would like to share a few things that helped make things easier and also a few thing that I brought that I didn’t need.

1. Lanyard with the key ring– The lanyard was probably the best thing I brought with us, our sign and sail card already had a hole punched in it when we got it. If yours doesn’t have one just ask and they will punch a hole in it for you. You use your S&S card for everything on the ship so you will constantly be taking it off and handing it over to staff. We got the ones that have the snap (from Amazon) so it could easily be undone without having to take our whole lanyard off.

2. Power strip– Definitely bring a power strip. Our room only had 1 plug so I bought one from dollar tree and it worked perfectly for our cell phones and my curling iron.

3. Clothes pins – The shower in our bathroom had a clothes line so I bought the big plastic clothes pins from dollar tree to hang out swim suits and towels on to dry. They held up perfect and just only $1. You can also use these as towel clips out on the Lido deck.

4. Water bottle – We brought a water bottle that I had bought at Walmart and thank goodness we did because the little cups they give you at breakfast and lunch are little and the lines for water and juice can get kinda long. So we brought our water bottle and filled it up with ice water. It came in handy while sitting out on the deck or in our room and saved us from having to walk back to the juice/water machine. You can purchase soda but they give you a plastic cup and with ice and you have to wait in line at the bars to get them. Plus you can take it off the ship when you go do excursions and it saves you from having to buy bottled water on the ship.

5. Magnetic hooks– The walls in the cabins/staterooms are metal and space is limited so I purchased a pack of magnetic hooks from amazon. We hung our lanyards, jackets, daily activities, & etc. it helped keep our counter space clutter free.

6. Dramamine – I’m definitely glad we brought something for motion sickness, our first and last night on the ship was pretty rocky. Even though we did book in the beginning of hurricane season and a tropical storm was out there our captain did a fantastic job going around all the rain. Also, a staff member had mentioned eating apples so we snagged a few from the buffet bar and it really did help.

7. Carry On Bag – Just like on an airplane you take a carry on bag on the ship. Mainly because you will need to keep important documents, money, medicine, and things like that on you while boarding the ship. Sometimes it takes a while for your luggage to make it to your stateroom when you first get on the ship. Ours wasn’t to our room till around 3 on embarkation day. In our carry on book bags we had our swimsuits so we could swim even though our luggage wasn’t at our room yet, an empty gallon size ziplock bag (for wet swimsuit), our documents/passports, Dramamine medicine, water bottles, swim towel (carnival does provide swim towels), small drawstring bag for exploring the ship and at port for exploring the island/ports.

Cruise Luggage tags– When you book your trip you will print off boarding documents you will need for the cruise and luggage tags are one of them. I ordered cruise luggage tags from amazon for you to put your room information in. They were very secure so our luggage made it to our room safely

Small fan– Yes, am one of those who sleep with a fan year round. The rooms do have air and ours worked very well but it did not put off any noise so our room was very quite, weird I know!! I brought a small desk top USB fan to use at night in our room. Next cruise I will be sure to bring an extension cord for it as well so I can put it on the table beside the bed.

Air fresheners-The bathrooms are small and you are on a ship so they can get a little stinky, I brought air freshener from the $1 isle and I did use it when we would use the bathroom in our room.

Travel toiletries bag- it was recommended to bring an over the door shoe holder but since it was just my husband and I we didn’t think it was necessary and it wasn’t. Maybe if was the whole family it may have been but the toiletries bag with hook worked just fine for us two. The ship provides shower gel and shampoo so bring conditioner. The bathroom had two hooks on the inside door so I used them for my laundry bag and toiletries bag.

Things that I didn’t need that I had read we would need to bring

Sleep mask– the room was pretty dark with the blackout curtains, however we had an ocean view room and not a balcony.

Ear plugs- we never used those at all. We were on the 2nd deck so it wasn’t noisy. If you stay near the Lido deck you may want to bring some just in case.

Beach towels- Carnival provides swim towels, just make sure you return them back to the room or they will charge you for them.

Half the Clothes I packed- we stayed in casual/swim clothes most of the time so we didn’t wear half of what we brought.

Snacks- I had read we would need snacks for waiting at the port while boarding and while at port in the Bahamas but we didn’t eat not the first snack we brought. There is plenty of food on the ship, I promise you won’t starve.

Thank you so much for reading and I hope this helps anyone preparing for their first cruise. I must say I was very nervous about being on a ship but it was one of the best and most relaxing vacations I have ever taken.

One thing that I have been wanting to do for some time now is drive the whole Historic Route 66 also known as “The Mother Road”. Ever since the first “Cars” movie came out when my son, who is now almost 18, was little I have always wanted to travel this road. Last spring I finally got to hit parts of it in Texas, New Mexico, & Oklahoma. This summer I made it a mission to finally see the historic Route 66 BEGIN sign in Chicago.

Let me just say, my husband is amazing and thankfully he loves to travel and go on new adventures just as I do. So we were planning a trip to northern Indiana and I thought, hey since we are going to be so close why don’t we just drive up to Chicago, see the city, look for my sign and drive on over to our campground in Indiana. The campground was only an hour away so it shouldn’t put us too far behind schedule and Illinois was still a state we needed to check off our map anyways.

So, that’s just what we did!! Justin wasn’t crazy about driving in the big city but he went along with it as always. We left out on a Thursday around lunchtime drove all the way to Terre Haute, Indiana. We stayed in an adorable teepee there for the night got up the next morning, had breakfast, explored the campground, and then got on our way to Chicago.

There we are, we had hit Chicago. It was definitely what I had expected and the closer we go into the city the more excited I got. I knew I was about to finally check off something big that was on my list for the state of Illinois, it was actually first on my list for that state.

Now that we are in the heart of the city I have everyone in the car looking for that famous sign I had longed to see, sounds silly I know, but it is what it is. GPS (google maps) had said we were there but we couldn’t see it, we missed it. We had drove right by where the landmark was supposed to be and we couldn’t find it. I had watched many YouTube videos about this Route 66 BEGIN sign to help us find it better. My husband Justin had refused to let me out of the car after a pedestrian had stuck his had all the way in my window almost hitting my face as we were driving by, so getting out and walking to it wasn’t an option at this point.

We decide to drive around the block one more time and if we didn’t find it this time then I was just going to be out of luck. So we turn out onto the Main Street again and we are almost to our turn to the street the sign was supposed to be on and a transportation bus pulls out in front of us and low and behold there it is. There is the sign, the historic Route 66 BEGIN sign. Me and my son Jacob just start snapping pictures of this sign like it’s nobody’s business lol.

And yes, I know it has END on the other side but I didn’t care about that. I wanted the begin part of it and I finally got it. When we eventually get to travel The Mother Road we will start in Illinois so I can get the END sign in California one day. Anyways, I was so excited that I had finally got to see it, I told Justin “okay, we can head to the campground now” and my son Jacob said “are you serious, we drove all the way up here for a picture of a sign” and I said “yep”. I wish we would have had time to eat a yummy Chicago hotdog but it literally took us an hour to get into the city and find the sign. We did however get to see Buckingham Fountain and it was beautiful overlooking Lake Michigan.

And now our time in Chicago had ended, it lasted all of an hour and we were now on our way back to Indiana. It was nice to see the city but we were definitely glad to be out of there. It was a quick little trip there and I’m glad it’s now checked off my list.

We are a homeschool, traveling family. My youngest daughter is 6 and will be 7 in May. In her bedroom she has a felt US map that came with landmarks. This current school year she has been very excited about learning her history homeschool lessons. Between learning about Native Americans and US presidents to other historic landmarks such as The Lincoln Memorial, The State of Liberty (which are her 2 favorites) ,The Liberty Bell, and many more, she has requested that for her birthday she wants to go see the Lincoln Memorial. So I guess we will be traveling and finding a place to camp near Washington DC this summer. She has already been to Yellowstone National Park to see Old Faithful which is a landmark on her map. So hopefully by the end of summer she will have at least 4 more landmarks seen by the end of summer. Our family is blessed to be able to homeschool and travel when we can.

We got to see Old Faithful and it was amazing, actually the whole park itself was amazing and we can’t wait til we get to go back. Except next time we plan to camp when we stay again. Emma Grace learned so much on this trip from volcanos, and geysers to bison and other wildlife animals. You learn so much from traveling whether you homeschool or if you are in public school. Traveling and learning go hand in hand. If you’re like me you learn more by seeing and hands on than anything else. My dad, Emma’s grandfather is from Kansas so we hope to knock off Dodge City from her map this summer as well. Kansas has a State Park we want to visit while we are there too. I will do another blog and Emma Grace will do a vlog on her YouTube channel about her landmark map travels when she’s finished with them all. There are a lot of other places she wants to see than are not on her landmark map. We may have to print some things and just add them to her map lol. Target had these maps in their dollar section a while back when they had the school section out. You can also purchase them from eBay if you would like to get one to add to your child’s room or homeschool classroom. When we talk about a state whether it’s from school or just planning a trip she always wants to go look and she where it’s at on her map. The Statue of Liberty is also at the top of her landmark travel list. She has been excited about the Statue of Liberty since first grade when she watched a homeschool pop video about it. By the way, homeschool pop is on YouTube and it is a good learning resource for all you homeschool mamas out there. Emma Grace learns better with visuals so that resource has been a great help to us to add to her lessons. I’m so glad that my sweet girl likes to travel like her mommy and camp as well. She is definitely going to #seetheworldwithcamping

Camping can be a bit overwhelming and it takes time to gather up all the equipment and supplies you need.  With each camping trip you’ll see from fellow campers, Pinterest, or just from experience other things you can use to make camp life easier. Whether you primitive camp, semi-primitive, or go the camper route you still see things you need. I’m going to share what my camp kitchen looks like to help get you started on your journey to getting out and exploring Gods world. There are many different ways you can cook while camping. You can use a Dutch oven, cast iron skillets, pie irons, freeze dried foods, and a camp stove using propane. We almost always cook with our camp stove and cast iron skillet. I try to use our Dutch oven as much as we can, but if your not used to cooking with one I would suggest experimenting at home with yours before hitting the woods first. You don’t want to end up with burnt or undercooked food and nothing else to eat. I have a Rubbermaid tub that I keep all my kitchen stuff in, plus a few other things that will fit down in my tub. This helps make my #camplife much easier. Inside my camp kitchen tub are the following items:

plastic cutting board

plastic plates ( it saves money on buying disposable especially if you camp a lot like we do

sunscreen

bug spray

ten foil

ziplock bags

pan

2 wash basins for washing dishes

dish soap

scrub pad

hand towel

mesh net for drying dishes. You can hang it up to save space.  ( you can get them at dollar tree)

small broom and dustpan for sweeping out the tent before packing up

collapsible shoe rack- (I hang ours on the canopy) for putting your kitchen supplies in for easy access.

Camp stove and propane with an extra bottle

long lighter for starting the fire and lighting camp stove

kitchen knife

spatula

big spoon

tongs

crayon box for plastic silverware

mesh folding clothes hamper. I use this as my trash can and it works perfect and doesn’t take up any space in my tub

trash bags

Lighter fluid- I keep this in my tub even if we don’t cook on the charcoal grill. It comes in handy for the fire. Especially if you have damp wood.

Can opener

pan spray

Hand soap-  in a bottle for when camping with water (semi-primitive) I keep it by the water spouts.

percolator- because we are coffee lovers especially the hubby. It makes the perfect coffee without power. You can find them at Walmart in the camping section for under $13

Roll of toilet paper and grocery bags- because let’s face at some campgrounds the bathroom is to far away 😂

collapsable bucket- it keeps from walking back and fourth to the water spout so much and it saves space. I literally use it all the time. You can also find this at Walmart in the camping section for under $10.

Camp shower bag- we have a camp shower tent but the shower bag that holds that actual water stays in our camp kitchen tub. We love our camp shower.

Battery operated lantern- we keep one on the camp table and keep it on all the time from dark til bedtime just to make it easier for the kiddos. Keeping up with all the flashlights can be nerve racking lol

rope- for clothesline and or tying up the tarp in case it rains

deck of cards- I have uno cards in ours.

So I think that about covers everything that’s in my camp kitchen. Hopefully I haven’t left anything out. You can add to or take away from your own camp kitchen. These are just items that we use on a regular basis while camping. This is by no means everything we take with us, this is just what’s in our “camp kitchen” tub. Hopefully soon I’ll have a printable checklist on another post. We keep these items in our tub at all times and replenish as we use it up. Camping has always been something I have enjoyed and it seems to be making a comeback. I think more and more people are getting into camping and exploring. There is so much to see out there in this great big world #seetheworldwithcamping