Sounds like lots of good advise given here. Another thing to keep in mind is that if things go too terribly wrong, just leave. Make adjustments to your plans/list and try it agian next week/month.
If this turns out to be something that you and your family enjoy, you may want to look into hamics. I've got a co-worker that loves to go camping in his hamic. It's not your $20 walmart version. More like a $200 mini tent with a built in bed. It has some sort of cover for over the top, a bug screen, a rain fly, and all kinds of stuff. He's able to load up the trunk of his 2004 honda accord, and go camping for a week, or go on a week long road trip staying at state parks along the way.
Personally, I prefer a camper/trailer. I've spent enough of my life working outside. I enjoy being outside, but I want a good nights sleep regardless of the weather. Had a good friend who took a 10 day rafting/hunting trip in Alaska with his dad, brother, a buisness partner, and a local that was also involved with the family buisness. Had his dad not learned to rough it in the jungle back in the late 60s, my buddy would have died of hypothermia half way through the trip. Rain and cold every day. Everything they took was either stainless or "weather proof". The stainless rusted even though it was cleaned and oiled every evening, and the stuff that was weather proof... well it wasn't Alaska proof. When he got home, he bought a 38' travel trailer for the buisness, and he's been camping with power ever since