We are looking to buy our first canoe. We have 2 young kids (6 and 8), and will be doing mainly local lakes/flat water with the hope of doing 1 or 2 canoe camping trips per year (also likely on lakes). My husband is the only one with some paddling experience (not extensive), and I want to get this for father’s day. Our local craigslist currently has both a Mad River Sunrunner and a Mad River Explorer for sale at the moment. Both in Kevlar, Sunrunner with wood gunnels and Explorer with aluminum. From what I see on the forums, the Explorer seems like a better boat for the likes of us beginners, but I didn’t know if it would be big enough for a family to go camping in (4 people, a dog, gear), so the larger size of the Sunrunner is appealing. Any thoughts would be appreciated. I hope to hear soon, before someone else buy one and makes the decision for me!