Our First Family Scout Camping Trip

There was never a doubt we'd be a scouting family. My husband grew up on a Boy Scout camp with his father as the Ranger. Charlie joined Cub Scouts this year as a Tiger and last month we went on our first scout camping trip as a family.

Although we have several awesome areas to camp locally, the pack opted to do a fun event in Greenwood, DE – about an hour and a half from home.

We started our weekend off bright and early Saturday morning with Owen's first soccer game of the season and then hit the road to meet up with rest of the pack.

The Delaware Ducks Unlimited 2018 Greenwing Conservation Festival was a really cool event. The kids were able to build a bluebird box, watch a decoy carving demonstration, practice fly fishing, shoot clay targets, target shoot with air rifles.

Oh, and don't worry – Mom got a chance to hit some clay targets with a shotgun, too! I mean, I missed, but it was fun!

Mazda dropped off a beautiful 2018 Mazda CX-9 for us to drive around for the week.

While it does have a third row and the ability to seat 7 passengers, we used it with the third row down. We needed all the room for our tent, canopy, sleeping bags, camping chairs, cooler, soccer bags, book bags, and what felt like a million other things. You'd think that just going away for one single overnight wouldn't require much – but it totally does.

Apparently I forgot to take a picture with EVERYTHING piled in the back, but here is a picture with the the third row up. I know that in many SUVs with a third row, you lose that oh so precious cargo space when you're actually using the third row. I was impressed that this is not the case here in the 2018 Mazda CX-9.

You'll also notice that the third row has one seat that will work for a car seat! So often SUVs and crossovers have third rows, but nowhere to actually secure a top tether. While accessing the third row here is not exactly easy, at least you are able to secure a car seat back there. We did end up keeping the kids in the middle row so that we could fill the back up with all of those camping supplies.

The kids are able to be as comfy as they'd like with their own temperature controls and even a center console that has cup holders and usb ports (to keep those tablets charged on a long ride).

Look past the kids gross car seats and take a look at those built-in sun shades! Those are one of my favorite features in vehicles now.

We had a beautiful drive down to the event, so we gladly enjoyed the sunroof!

Unfortunately, our camping trip was cut a bit short due to a storm blowing in. And yes, I even use the sunroof if it's raining. It may not be open completely, but I love the extra light that comes into the car.

I love when a car has navigation options, especially when traveling! The 2018 Mazda CX-9 makes it easy to get where you're going. Not only does it give directions, but it will tell you what kind of things are at each exit as you approach: gas, food, and other important things!

The Active Driving Heads-Up Display in the Mazda CX-9 shows directions (including which lanes you'll want to be in) when navigation is in action. It also shows the speed limit and current speed and stop signs as you approach them. I'm really impressed with this safety feature in the vehicle.

While camping, we all just kind of parked in the middle of a field. There were kids moving around constantly and the i-ACTIVSENSE^® vehicle safety innovations made me feel confident when moving the car around the field with all those kids nearby.