Camping

Our first family camping trip with Shella May. (Picture taken right when we woke up on day 3)

Just hanging out with the girls.

Sitting around the campfire waiting for food:)

We left on Friday after Ryan got home from work. I had the van all packed to the top, plus our friends took some of our stuff. We went to a state park about an hour from our house. When we got up there we found out we had to park and carry our stuff into our site about a hundred yards. Not the end of the world, but we had a lot of junk. Our friends had already set up our tent when we got there (thank you B. family) so we just unpacked. We went with 3 other families and it was so fun to just relax and hang out with them. All we basically did was eat and hang out, isn't that what it is all about? Friday night went by quickly since we got up so late, it was dark before we knew it. Shella May had her first roasted marshmallow and thought it was great. We didn't get to bed that night until 10:30 which is really late for our kids. We brought a crib mattress for Shella May to sleep on so that she would get perfect sleep, which she did.

The next morning we went to the lake. I didn't like this beach because it had goose poop all over it, but the kids didn't seem to mind. They swam, played in the poop sand, and fished. We also rented a canoe for a few hours and all the kids got a turn going out on the little lake. We were there for about 5 hours and everyone was wiped out. We went back after our picnic lunch because I was worried that we were going to have a meltdown. Shella May was getting really quiet at the beach and beginning to become non-responsive, which indicates meltdown. When we got back to the campsite we decided to go on a hike before dinner. We love to go on little hikes, but this one was not so great because it was boring. It was just a mile of prairie walking, we never hit any woods or hills or anything. It was probably good because Ryan and I were the only adults with 9 kids following us. We looked like the Pied Piper. When we came back dinner was already started (I did tell the kids to walk slowly, this was my plan!) We ate dinner, made homemade ice cream and s'mores. That night there was an astronomy talk by the U of M that everyone in our group went to except us. It was late and we needed our kids to go to bed. Shella May asked to go to sleep at 9:00.

The next morning we got up and cleaned up. Overall it was a good trip because it was really uneventful. We had nice warm weather and no rain. The kids were all really good and played nicely also. We all had so much fun just talking and hanging out. The only two things I can complain about are the amount of mosquitoes (I have bites up and down my body that itch endlessly) and all the noise (only because I'm a light sleeper). You know it wouldn't be me if I didn't complain about something.

Shella May was so happy to be home and we let her have the first shower also, which really made her happy.