we finally went camping!

Bart and I went camping a few times before we had any kids, and Kade and Ky and I went camping with my family once several years ago, but that is the extent of our camping experience as a family.  We have been saying that we should take our boys camping every summer for the past five summers.  Well, at the end of August, we finally did it!

We found a cute little campground about 15 minutes away from home (we are super adventurous!), that wasn't very crowded, had flushing toilets, and was perfect for our little family's first outing.  We loaded up both vehicles full of stuff we were sure we needed, a lot of which we had to borrow from others, and headed out first thing in the morning.

 We set up camp first thing (no easy task with three little boys, the youngest of which has no problem wandering into the trees and away from mom and dad--over and over)!  Then, once we had things set up, we headed out on our day excursion.
Our first stop was this awesome little beach.  We didn't stop to play in the water, but we'll have to make a trip there just for that purpose sometime, because it looked like fun!

 We did spend some time there throwing rocks in the water, (or "going bloop," as Krew calls it).

 The kids also had fun climbing on the rocks, trying to see how far out in the water they could go by stepping on the rocks, and not getting wet.  The rocky shore was perfect for this, because there were lots of rock ridges that we could walk on among the smaller pools of water.

 Next, we headed to a gorgeous state park.  Our first stop once we were there was this awesome lookout tower.  I could not believe how many steps we had to climb (and how exhausting it was carrying a 30 pound child all the way up them), but the few at the top was well worth it.  At least I thought so.  I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who enjoyed being up there.  It was a little high and scary for everyone else!

 Next, we took our bikes out for a ride.  The first trail we tried riding on, at the recommendation of some people we talked to by the tower, was not a trail, but a busy, winding, steep road.  It was hard enough to help keep the kids from riding into the road and avoiding the cars, but at one point our bike ride got super scary.  We came upon a steep, twisty, downhill slope, and I think it was too much for Ky to try to think about staying to the side so he didn't get hit by cars, and try to manage the steep slope (which is something they are certainly not used to in our nearly-flat neighborhood).  Anyway, instead of using his brakes, he took his feet off the pedals to try to slow down, which only made him go faster.  I saw him speeding up, and as he was weaving side to side, I wasn't sure if he was going to lose control in front of the cars that were going down the hill.  Instead, he went the other way, and crashed into a rock wall.  He crashed quite hard, and slammed his (helmet-covered) head into the wall.  Watching the crash, I was sure he would have a broken bone, or a deep cut, or a broken bike, or something serious.  I could not believe it when he stood up and said, "I'm okay!"  He was quite shaken up (as were the rest of us), and it took some time for us all to calm down.  We looked him over and saw that he only had a few very minor scratches, and that his helmet had saved him from serious injury.  Also, the wall saved him from serious injury as we could now see that on the other side of the wall was a very large drop-off. Also,most significantly, I'm positive that the prayer we said as a family that morning, when we asked Heavenly Father to keep us safe, saved Ky from serious injury. We walked our bikes back the way we came, and luckily found a much better trail to ride on.

 Despite us all being a little shaken up, we had a great bike ride!  Krew kept talking about Ky's crash, and I did everything I could to help him know that we were all okay.  Finally, Krew perked up and started singing songs, and pointing out all the broken trees that he could see.  It was perfect!

 When we got back to camp, we started cooking dinner, played in the hammock, played in the dirt and Kade and Ky rode their bikes around the campground.  I wish I had a picture of our delicious tin-foil dinners.  They were by far the yummiest, fanciest ones I have ever had.  I was worried about how they would turn out, since I've never had to be the one in charge of cooking them before, but they turned out great!

 At night, I gave the boys these light-up sticks to wear around their necks so that they wouldn't get lost in the dark.  Well, they turned out to be great toys as well!

 We all survived the night!  Actually, everyone slept better than I expected.  Kade and Ky chatted in their tent for quite a bit before they finally settled down, but they slept through the night no problem!  Krew was super hyper at bed time, and thought the pack-n-play was a really fun place to be, but once he settled down, he slept great, only waking up once, and then going right back to sleep.  Our air mattress apparently had a hole, and we ended up sleeping basically on the ground.  It started raining at about 5:00, and we hadn't put on the rain flies because it was a hot night, and the forecast was for 0% chance of rain.  Well, it rained pretty hard for about 15 minutes.  Long enough for me to go out in it, find the rain flies in the car, set them both up, and get back in the tent.  Then it stopped.  We were able to stay pretty dry, but it was really difficult to go back to sleep after that.  Oh well!
We spent the next morning making and eating pancakes, packing up and riding our bikes all over the campground.  I have to show this adorable picture of Krew because 1) His face is to die for, and 2) It shows his new awesome bike seat.  Bart and I saw this seat at Play It Again Sports when we were there looking for something else.  Once we realized what it was, we knew that we had to give it a try.  Krew loves it!  It's so much better than the bike trailer we had been using.  It's more fun for Krew, he can see more, and he and I can interact while we ride.  He now asks to go for bike rides all the time, and we have been going out several times a week ever since we bought this.  Too bad we didn't have it sooner!

 Once we finished packing up, we headed to the playground near the campground and let the kids play for a while.

Once everyone was sufficiently dirty and worn out, we got in our cars and headed home for a shower!
We were so glad that we finally made it out camping, even if it is a lot of work.  Hopefully we can go again next summer too!