Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Camping!

We got to go camping over the weekend at a state park about an hour from home. It was a first ever for me, though Drew has taken the boys before and he used to go camping as a kid with his family. We went with two other families we are friends with from our church, and I'm so thankful our friends, J & D, invited us all along! All in all there were 17 of us on three campsites, counting adults and kids and we shared the evening cooking duties among us and just had a really good time together all weekend. The kids got along great, and I know they had a fun time. The only thing I don't like (besides the nasty showers, which were decent at the beginning of the weekend but pretty gross by the last day) was missing church on Sunday, but we had a really nice family worship time that morning, and really enjoyed the little Bible study we did with the kids. All in all, I really enjoyed our first family camping outing - having friends along made it perfect, too. I'm still not sure camping will be my vacation of choice, though. I could not WAIT to take a real shower in a clean bathroom and get the smoke smell off me once we got home. Lots of work before and after the relaxing, but it was definitely worth it.

Just like less is more in blogging, and I haven't gotten the hang of that, I'm sure less is more with picture sharing, too. However, I had a hard time narrowing it down, so even though there were LOTS more pictures I wanted to share, here are a few - still more than a decent sized blog post should allow, I'm sure. Enjoy or not.....

One of the cool things about Drew being active duty rather than just Reserves now and actually working on post and being stationed at a real base is that we get privileges on post. One privilege is that we were able to rent a cute little camper from Ft. Knox at a very reasonable price. And I do mean LITTLE. Imagine all 5 of us sleeping in there. But it had a microwave, so Joshua and I got to have tea, which was a good thing, let me tell you. And it made for some cozy family bonding time. I am extremely thankful for how well the kids behaved and got along for the most part this weekend. Made it a fun weekend.



Rachel was glad to have her best little friend along....sometimes a little too glad. She wanted to be wherever W. was no matter what. But he doesn't seem to mind.



Me trying to read my Bible before the day got going. Not sure why I was standing, but Drew thought it was interesting enough for a picture. Also the very last moment I needed a sweater. We had beautiful weather all weekend. After all the rain we've had recently, we really couldn't have asked for a nicer camping weekend, though the lake was closed to swimming due to flooding, and it did heat up A LOT Saturday afternoon and Sunday.



Our family went off for our own little nature walk on Saturday. I'm so thankful for the people in this picture!



Because the boys got to do some things she wasn't old enough to do, Drew took Rachel horseback riding. She wasn't too sure about it at first, but then she loved it. Drew said the boy helping her was really good with her - talked to her the whole time and she got more comfortable and really LOVED "Shorty" the horse. I'm glad she got some bonding time with her daddy, too.



Rachel with "Shorty."



I just love this picture! Rachel and Daddy.



Of course, we had to have bacon one morning - Michael's favorite thing.



The older kids got to do some archery one day. Being at a state park was cool because they had all kinds of neat, free things for the kids to take advantage of throughout the weekend. This is Joshua in the yellow shirt.


Michael in the middle.



S'mores on the last evening.





The kids really all had a great time playing together. Lots of fun!


1 comment:

Pam said...

Very tiny camper, but it looks like you had a great weekend. I camped a lot growing up and loved it. It was the only way we got to go new places and see new things. But as an adult, I haven't camped at all. Don't really miss the dirt and the smells. But looks like you all had a lot of fun. : )