Introduction

Five Happy Campers was launched in 2017 as a way to inspire other families to enjoy the great outdoors together through hiking, camping, canoeing or just taking a random day trip. Since I gave up on traditional scrapbooks years ago (Shhh…don’t tell my mom) this has become a great way for me to document and record our adventures. The picture above is from our recent trip camping in the Adirondack Mountains, one of our absolute favorite places to be. I can pretty much guarantee you will never see a picture with all five of us actually looking at the camera with normal smiles. It’s impossible!

The reason I started writing is simple. I love planning vacations! Over the years I’ve spent many hours online, scouring reviews and articles while doing our own vacation planning. Sometimes we have one of those “Oh my gosh! This was the best trip ever.” type of moments and other times things don’t work out so well. Hopefully you can learn something from us that helps you with your trip planning. It’s like I’m making up for all those Amazon reviews I’ve meant to write.

We are an average family. My name is Caroline, and I’m married to my boyfriend from high school, Kris. We have three beautiful daughters, twins Madeline and Paige (10) and Hannah (7). Homework, ballet, art and playdates fill most days but when we can get a break from our daily routines our girls will trade their ballet shoes for hiking boots in a heart beat. We moved to Pittsburgh in June 2018 and are excited about exploring some new areas. 

I try to make the most of every minute we have as a family before our children are grown. A big part of that is taking trips, big and small, mostly fairly inexpensive and sometimes not. Um…Disney World. While most of our trips involve lengthy car rides, outdoor activities and National Park sites, I hope something about our crazy adventures resonates with you and encourages you to tag along for the ride!

Caroline