Glamping in Style at Best Day Ever Ranch

Fall is always a busy season for me. Tons of birthdays, weddings (I had 3 in one month), events for the blog, holidays, and more. I was in desperate need of a break. When a last minute opportunity to go “glamping” at the Best Day Ever Ranch with my Dallas Fitness Ambassadors came up, I decided this would be the prime opportunity to escape for a weekend.

Let me preface this by saying, I am no camping girl. I just don’t like it. As much as I love nature and being outdoors, I’m not a fan of sleeping in it. You can catch me playing all types of games, participating in every ropes course or jumping in a lake, but at the end of the day, I want a hot shower and a warm bed. This time around, I wanted to give camping another chance and I knew I’d be in great company.

Best Day Every Ranch invited all nine of us for a sponsored weekend getaway, one hour north of Dallas. They promised to set up our tents with blow up mattresses and a stoke fire if we needed it. Got to hand it to my girl Ginger of the Ginger Marie Blog for organizing all of this and somehow getting 9 very busy women to agree to go camping. When we arrived Friday afternoon, we found three large tents set up  by their Dream Lake. What a view.

One of the real MVPs is my friend Ashley Hatcher of Fit Girl in Flight. She is such a pro and took great care of us and getting this fire started. You can also read her post on how to host a Pinterest worthy camping trip here. I couldn’t have been more useless this trip with my minimal knowledge of camping. We all loved the fire pit the ranch provided. It made cooking really convenient and safe.

Once everyone arrived and settled in, we had a few drinks, gathered around the fire and giggled late into the night.

The next morning started bright and early with coffee and breakfast burritos thanks to Stephanie Suire. They were so good and perfect for such a chilly morning. It’s was a humbling experience to realize the work that goes into boiling water for coffee when you don’t have an outlet and a machine to do it. We all took this moment to appreciate warmth, good health, and some damn good coffee. Pro-tip: It was easiest for me to bring instant coffee instead of waiting to brew it. Taster’s Choice Colombian is the best and I don’t do instant coffee often.

What’s camping without mimosas? Ginger was all over that. And I loved sipping on On The Rocks. It’s pre-made cocktails you just pour over ice. Perfect and easy.

To make the glamping trip so much sweeter, Sprouts hooked us up with all of our food,snacks and some of our alcohol for the weekend. Sandwiches are fine and all, but we got fixing for chili, fajitas, sandwiches, snacks, and more. I was all over the food and there’s nothing like hot food in your stomach when it gets cold at night. Chandler of the H is For and I did all the shopping prior to the trip.  In our group, we also have a vegan and someone who is gluten-intolerant. It was amazing to see how accommodating and thoughtful the food was prepped. There were enough options for everyone.

After breakfast and waiting for the sun to finally warm up, we decided to explore the camp grounds. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect. The best part was being able to goof off with a bunch of amazing ladies who get it. Bonus: add the fact that we are all bloggers and love taking photos. Does that mean everyone’s phone is out taking a ton of photos (while deathly afraid of our swindling battery life? Or that we were all snapchatting our ridiculousness?  Why yes! And then some.

The ranch has their own mini petting zoo. We were able to get inside this little pen and pet the goats, donkeys and their one llama.

There was also a wedding happening this same weekend. The ranch is a cute venue for a small wedding. We definitely heard the party from our campsite.

The hiking trail left much more to be desired. It was winding and somewhat scenic, but it didn’t feel like we went anywhere. As the ranch continues to build out, I hope there will be more activities. We were all bummed horse back riding wasn’t available anymore.

By the afternoon, I was getting antsy. I’m so used to having something to do that relaxing is hard for me. Plus, I had zero cell reception, so it forced me to be present. I decided to brave the water and go paddle boarding for the first time. This photo was snapped right before I fell in. Talk about really being present.

So I made up for it with Moscow Mules.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out and enjoying each other’s company. After a fun styled shoot, it was time for dinner.

Then we gathered around the girl and gossiped into the night over more moscow mules, sangria and smores.

You also catch other recaps of the weekend from Brittany of Fit X Brit, Veleisa Patton, Dixya of Food Pleasure Health, and Jerica of Eat Well & Sparkle.

I had an absolute blast with these amazing women. I couldn’t have asked for better company and a new experience with camping. After two nights I couldn’t wait to go home and actually shower. Pretty sure it took a week to get the smell of smoke out of my hair but WORTH IT!

Have you ever gone camping? What are some of your favorite places to camp?

This weekend was sponsored by Best Day Ever Ranch and Sprouts, however all opinions remain my own.