Another Camping Trip

Than is a real outdoorsman. He's spent plenty of nights backpacking through the mountains nearby. But, to be perfectly honest, the whole camping thing is new territory for me. I've been camping plenty of times in my life, but mostly when I was a kid. Or when I acted kid-ish. This camping thing as a real adult is some serious work. It seems like the whole week before I am planning our meals and all the things we'll have to bring. And then there's laundry to do. But who knows why I wash clothes just to take them camping where they get REALLY dirty. Then we camp for a few days, which is great fun, and then we come home and I spend a week doing laundry and putting everything back that we HAD to take with us.

This was our 4th camping trip of the summer. Although the preparing process is still time-consuming, I feel like I'm getting a handle on all of this. I think this was our smoothest trip where we didn't forget anything and we felt truly relaxed. It was wonderful!!! 

We traveled to Palisade Lake State Park. It's a place that we have been before plenty of times for a day trip. This was the longest time we have spent there and we had plenty to do.

When we got to our campsite, Aaron spent some time balancing. He believes it's always good to wear your bike helmet when balancing. Sara honed her jump-roping skills. Than got the trailer all hooked up. I sat back and captured these amazing events.

Later we headed to the water to do some explorin'. There must have been something extremely interesting in that water. The kids loved running on the dock and I said silent prayers that they wouldn't fall in.

Near the water is a playground. We go camping to be close to the nature that surrounds us and what the kids really want to do is go to the park. Go figure. But I think when I was a kid, I would have wanted the same thing. Aaron was fond of the twisty slide, especially because he could practice his pull-ups. It's very important for a 4-year-old to develop those biceps. Sara wanted to show us her mad monkey-bar skills, and Than showed her that her old man has some skills of his own. Sara and I felt pretty groovy flashing dad the peace sign and then it was back to the lake to skip rocks. Sara got her rock to skip 2 times--for the first time ever. It was a very big deal. Really. I mean it.

The next day we woke up, ate some yummy breakfast (pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream) and then headed off to visit grandma and grandpa who were staying at a little house they have nearby. The kids were excited to ride the four-wheelers. At least Aaron was excited, Sara's face says otherwise. But when they came back they were both all smiles and thought they had done the funnest thing ever.

Of course, we played on the water. The freezing cold water. Aaron liked it for a few minutes and then he occupied himself with playing in the sand. We brought this boogie board thing that we got last year in California and Sara spent most of her time laying on it and pushing herself around with her hands. She was really adventurous, drifting far away from the beach.

After we were sufficiently frozen, we decided to go for a paddle boat ride. We thought we were up to the challenge, seeing how Than is strengthening is legs by mountain biking a few times each week. Turns out, we are pretty wimpy. The kids kept complaining that we weren't going fast enough. But I don't think those things are meant for speed anyway.

That night we got to doing things and lost track of time. Before we know it is was LATE. Bedtime late. The kids were adamant that we make s'mores. Since there was no time to make a fire, we improvised. Giant marshmallows cooked on the trailer stove are actually pretty good, just as Aaron.

On our last day, Sara and I spent some time making button bracelets. Then we went for a nice walk/bike ride.

We have a history of taking not-so-great family pictures when we go places. So often times we opt not to take a picture of all of us. This time I made sure we go a picture and I think it turned out to be our best (not professional) picture so far. Yay us! That's why it's got double exposure on the blog.

Then it was time to clean and pack everything up. We left excited for our next camping adventure. Hopefully that happens sooner than later.