Joy Duggar’s ‘First Time Camping?’ Viewers Think They’ve Spotted A Contradiction

A video recently released by TLC centers on Joy Duggar and her fiance, Austin Forsyth, discussing their upcoming marriage and their recent combined bachelor and bachelorette party. The couple had an event based on their proclaimed shared love of the outdoors, but some viewers thought they picked up a contradiction when Joy mentioned that this was her first camping trip.

“Yeah, I’ve never really been a big camper, so this is my first time actually to camp outdoors…”

Joy and Austin’s relationship has been described as supported by a shared love of the outdoors, and both the courtship announcement video and engagement video capitalized on this, showing the couple outside in hiking, climbing, and horseback riding environments. In the engagement video, Joy Duggar and Austin Forsyth are shown to have hiked to a special lookout rock where Austin says he likes to go for fellowship with God, and where they’ve spent time together before.

The engagement video specifically mentions a horseback-riding date (and Joy’s chaperones, 11-year-old Johannah and 9-year-old Jennifer), and is filmed on a trail or dirt road, again emphasizing the outdoorsy nature of the couple’s relationship.

Seeing a Duggar courtship and engagement announcement center around that individual’s interests isn’t a great surprise — we also saw this with Jinger, whose interests as described in the family scrapbook include travel and photography — her engagement took place in a surprise photography session on a New York City rooftop.

https://www.facebook.com/duggarfamilyofficial/photos/a.516618088471845.1073741827.510067475793573/860477734085877/

Of course, too, there’s the fact that Austin’s family operates a business called Fort Rock Family Camp — a resort set up to look like an old west village, where the Duggar family often visits, and where the activities include hiking, horseback riding, archery, and other outdoor activities.

https://www.facebook.com/duggarfamilyofficial/photos/a.516618088471845.1073741827.510067475793573/747488015384850/

With all that outdoorsiness, it’s small wonder that viewers’ ears perked up at the notion that Joy Duggar had never been camping before. on the Duggar Family Blog, multiple viewers commented to address this, with some pointing out that Joy had filmed a ‘survival training’ episode for her family’s reality show in a recent season.

“Her first time to camp outdoors? What was all that ‘survival training’ they had on the show? Did she forget that?

“Joy’s never been on a camping trip before? Didn’t we watch her on their television show camping out with her siblings at a survival camp?

“I guess Joy forgot about the survival camp plotline from their ‘reality’ show.”

Oops?

Well, whether or not “first time camping” represents a slip of the lip probably has less to do with whether the Duggar family’s survival training was feigned for television than exactly what Joy defines as “camping outdoors.” Of course, the family has a couple of campers, with beds — so perhaps Joy doesn’t consider sleeping in a camper “camping outdoors.”

It could definitely have been her first time sleeping in a tent, though. The survival episode that viewers keep mentioning actually focused quite heavily on Joy’s annoyance that Jinger spent her time texting with Jeremy Vuolo, rather than joining the family in survival techniques.

However, this focus on Joy and Jinger helpfully provided a clue in People magazine — Joy and the other Duggar sisters started the campout in a survival hut, but also brought along the camper (which Joy criticizes Jinger for retreating to with her phone). However, Joy, too, reportedly joined Jinger, along with Jason, Josiah, Jedidiah, and Jana, before the night was up.

On the other hand, according to the Duggar Family Blog, at another point in the Duggar family camping trip and survival training, Jason spotted a bear in the middle of the night and thought of Joy — who was sleeping in a hammock, outside.

That sounds like camping outside, and sounds pretty memorable. In fact, the Duggar family discussed this incident later in another video, and Joy describes waking to her brother standing over her with a knife, warning her about a bear.

Maybe Joy Duggar just meant it was her first time spending the entire night outside without a terrifying wake-up call, or perhaps her first time sleeping on the ground — or maybe when you’re a teenager in your first relationship (even if you’re also getting married really, really soon), everything just feels brand-new.

[Featured Image by Duggar Family Official/Facebook]