Our Fall Camp Out

We have been really wanting to do a camp out this fall, but between FFF, Gymnastics, visiting family, football and birthday parties it has been difficult to find a free weekend.  Then I realized that there was no FFF this weekend, and Ava and Carter had a four day weekend so we could easily go camping Saturday after their morning activities.

Um guys, that's a lot of lovies for one night.

The camp out didn't start off on the right foot.  Everyone was loaded up, everything packed up.....and the van wouldn't start.  We had chosen a campground very close to our house and instead of disappointing the kids we decided to pack up what we could into the jeep and make two trips.  It was only 8 minutes away, so we could realistically make it work in the jeep.

We arrived, unloaded kids and half of the gear.  Mike stayed and put up the tent with the kids while I ran back to the house and got the rest.

While not ideal, it worked and the kids were very happy.  How could you not be?  Look at this beautiful view!  By the way, Mike and I both decided that Canadian Geese are nocturnal.

Carter unloaded his backpack of "gear" and immediately pulled out a book to read.  Nothing better than a fire and a good book!

We took a couple of little hikes and checked out the dock at the campsite.  Very pretty this time of the year!

Dawson was really not sold on the idea of camping, he asked many times to go home.  But he LOVED the fact that I packed pepperoni.  Free range camping parenting kicked in and he made himself some delicacies: sunbutter and pepperoni sandwich, a pepperoni smore (graham cracker and pepperoni) and a hot dog wrapped in pepperoni.  Not too suprising that he had stomach troubles today, huh?

Enjoying

She looks like an adult crossing her legs and drinking (water) out of her coffee cup.

Crazy boy!

The kids were in charge of cooking their dinner.

And Dawson's creation:  the pepperoni hot dog

It always amazes me how comfortable Mike can be in chilly weather.  He has on a short sleeve shirt, vest, shorts and boots.

While I was wearing a headband to keep my ears warm, a scarf, long sleeve thermal, sweatshirt, winter coat and gloves.

My favorite memory of this camp out hands down:  telling not so scary stories around the campfire with the kids.  Ava wanted to tell scary stories, but Carter insisted they couldn't be scary and absolutely no stories about vampires or zombies.  Mike started telling the story of "Memmet" who lived in Lego Town.  Basically he told the story of the Lego Movie while barely changing the names of the characters.  Eventually Dawson got irritated and wanted to tell a scary story, which ended with Carter scooting very close and holding my hand.  I love my sweet little boy with his incredibly imagination and distaste for scary things.  I understand Carter, I don't like scary stories either.

After a very chilly night, we packed up and came home to warm up.  A fun weekend filled with fun family time!