Camping!

We finally got a decent weekend that we actually had (mostly) free to go camping.  We found a really nice county campground.  There was a nice playground just down the trail and an arboretum with trails to bike through.  It was perfect for us.  I'm sure we will camp here often in the future. 

There is just something great about watching your kids create play with whatever they can find.  My girls spent a lot of time making "food", riding bikes, playing in the small pool I brought, and just collecting things they found aroud the site.  It was pretty hot on Sunday and poor Paige must take after me.  The girl was drenched in sweat.

One last Camping Adventure!

We really wanted to get out and camp one more time before the season ended and snow flies.  Last weekend we had perfect weather.  It was a little chilly at night, but the space heater kept us all warm.  We wanted to camp at Ledges State Park, but it was full when we pulled through on Thursday evening, so we headed to Don Williams.  We did go back to Ledges on Friday just to walk down and let the girls explore the water.  They had a blast.  The park really is in bad shape after the flooding this summer and could use a lot of cleaning up.  It is still a very pretty park and we enjoyed our picnic and family time.  Grandpa & Grandma came to visit on Friday afternoon and we had fun finding acorns, playing at the park, and walking to the dock. 

We brought the girls rain boots with us, so they could walk through the water.  Little did I know that they would over flow the boots and we would end up dumping water out of them occasionally.  I did bring a change of clothes for the girls, so I wasn't concerned and just let them explore.

Paige and I threw sticks and leaves into the stream and watched them float away.

I love how much my girls are really becoming friends and look out for each other.  Sometimes they even share!

On Saturday, Nana, Papa, and Aunt Amber drove down in Papa's convertible.  The girls LOVED riding on the back of the car through the park and kept wanting more rides.

Paige got to grill hotdogs for the first time all by herself.  You can see how perfect our site was, right by the playground.  The girls spend ALL their time playing there and even made some friends by the end of the weekend.

And here is our SuperStar on our way home.  Isn't she darn cute?!  I'm sad that we had to store the camper for the winter.  It means that snow is coming and I'm just not quite ready for this Indian Summer to end!

Our First Campout!

We went camping as a family for the first time ever a couple weekends ago.  Mark and I both grew up camping in pop-ups.  In fact, this camper belongs to Mark's parents.  It's the one he camped in growing up.  I haven't wanted to take the girls camping before now, because I just can't imagine it would be much fun with a kid under age 2, but that's just me.  Of course Alaina was the last one asleep and the first one awake both nights, but that's part of the fun.  I knew we would have some trouble as she is used to sleeping in a crib and she had a bed here.  After the first night I asked Mark if it ruined the camping experience to bring out our portable DVD player.  We decided it didn't and used that to help them relax the second night.  (PS this was my first attempt at editing a picture to look vintage.)

It was great to see the girls entertain themselves with nothing but sticks, dirt, rocks, an alligator, and dinosaurs.  They had a blast and were filthy.  As you can see, Alaina refused shoes for much of our weekend.

We did get out some polly pockets the last day, just for something new.

And Alaina played with the alligator.

This is how Paige buckled up on the way out.  Pretty cute, but not so safe.