Ephraim, Will you be camping with other families with children?

Your photos of Lily capture quite a spirit of fun and light.

Yeah! We took our 11 year old son last year and I was pregnant with our daughter who will be attending this year as well (10 months). Our experience was a very positive one and all of the problems with kidlings and the playa were one's we had anticipated. Let me start by saying our son was completely enraptured and would probably disown us if we left him at home after his attendance last year. He was featured in the Gazette in a BM kids article and did great. We had anticipated that the schedule with resting and taking it easy during the day and going sight seeing at night may be tough for him since he goes to be most nights at 9 or 9:30 - we were right and found that we really could not venture too far from camp because he was already turning into a pumpkin - in other words - go to the Temple during the day and any other lengthy trip unless your little one is nocturnal by nature. Where you camp is the key and we were surrounded by friends and other previous campmates that we'd been with for the previous three years so we were comfy. We also brought our vintage travel trailer which we had purchased last year and of course, this adds a lot of cush for the family. You will have your parent senses on for the entire event which was a new thing for us but well worth seeing your child have an entire week's worth of creativity and play surrounding them. Our's son's age also made it easy to prepare him with full disclosure of what he would see - including nakedness, intoxication, and other wildness. He hardly seemed to notice to tell you the truth - there is so much else out there to capture their eye. We also made sure there was a lot of prep with safety issues and getting lost - we got there early and familiarized him with landmarks especially as the city changed from Tuesday to Friday so he still knew where Center Camp was - even though he seemed very oriented as the week went on I would never trust that he could make it back to our camp. Center Camp was the place to meet and only talk to Rangers about being lost if he needed to. We also made sure his bike always had extra water, jacket, sunscreen and his index card with our coordinate info, names, etc. just in case he was separated for any period of time. Bringing our daughter this year will just be a matter of getting some gear (ie goggles, masks) that actually fit her since she'll be strapped to us everywhere we go. Basically anything you do for your comfort and safety (bikes, lights, creature comforts) you do for them too. You're all welcome to stop by with your families - we're Mind Sublime this year and our son will be hosting a playshop for kidlings in the BRC at some point in the week that will be listed in the What/When/Where.

Let the wonderment begin!!!!

Poprokz