Camping

Sorry, but this is going to be long one! We went camping at Crescent Lake last weekend, (Labor day weekend) with my sister, her two girls, and Andy's sister and her family. It was our first time camping with the kids, so I was a bit apprehensive about it...worried about them getting bored, worried about them sleeping ok in a tent, worried about them getting cold, etc. Turns out the only one of those things that I really needed to worry about was the cold factor. Of course we had to pick the weekend where it got down to 30 at night, and wasn't much warmer than that in the mornings. Yikes! The wind didn't help either....BUT, we pereservered and had a great weekend enjoying our family, great food, nature, campfires, campfire songs, and all of that other great stuff that just goes along with camping. (notice I am leaving stinky outhouses off of this list....blech) :)

After we first arrived, it was actually pretty sunny and warm. Abby was all smiles - she is an outside girl for sure!




Relaxing after all of our setup. I forgot how much work camping is! Especially with two little ones to chase after and make sure are not getting into trouble or danger. (sister Alice and niece Emily on the bench, niece Jasmine and nephews Andy and Austin in the chairs)
A view of our tent-land with the lake in the background. It really was a beautiful campsite.
Andy, Austin, and big Andy all braved the COLD water for a swim. I thought they were nuts!
Even more of a surprise, however, was when Abby wanted to get in too. What? This is the girl who doesn't even want to get in a pool because it's too cold, and yet she will get in Crescent Lake like there's nothing to it.
The kids were really good about playing and keeping themselves occupied with the few toys that we brought.



Cookin' those hotdogs!
My little ham.
Delicious!
The next day the "boys" wanted to take the raft out.
All aboard! Paddling away...Zach is the little head in front. They were pretty funny to watch.

It's hard to tell what our nephew Andy is doing here, but he's working on his trap to try to catch one of the million chipmunks that were roaming about. The boys had teams, and the team to win didn't have to look for firewood, which apparently was a big incentive. All of the traps were safe and wouldn't hurt the chipmunks (don't worry) but it didn't really matter anyway because no one caught one. Andy (husband, not nephew) was close but the little guy scurried out and escaped.
Our brother-in-law, Mike manning the grill. He is a chef, so he kept us well fed all weekend! I gotta say, it was pretty nice having him around! :)
Hanging around the campfire....the day was getting colder already.
Andy's sister, Colleen, with Andy and Adam. Am I confusing you yet with the Andy's??
Yummy corn on the cob!

The little table we brought which served as both an eating table and an art table.
Happy girl.
Everyone all bundled up, doing their thing on our last morning there.
Buddies.
And finally, the birds were loving our leftovers and just helped themselves. (see the bird on the grill?) We weren't going to eat the food anyway, so it was entertaining to watch them.

And I guess that's it! We had a good time and are definitely glad we went and know it will be easier next summer when the kids are even older. They really did great though. Thank you to all of their cousins who were wonderful helpers and were really great at keeping them happy and entertained.

Now next time we're going for some warmer weather though!