Camping 2013

 Ok, in between birthdays and before the first day of school, I'm going to finally post about our camping trip a few weeks ago. I will say it was quite an adventure. I had a hard time narrowing down the pictures so feel free to scroll quickly if you want.

 We went with our friends who were graciously willing to take Ethan (even with his history of throwing up on the way to this campground:() with them so that we could take our truck. We were glad we were able to take the truck because as you can see we needed every square inch of space. We pretty much brought everything we own.

 Here is little Miss Brooklyn about 1 hour after arriving. Look carefully and you'll see how dirty she was almost immediately.

                                                 Exploring the lake the first night after dinner.

                                                             A little boys paradise!

                                                            A big boys paradise too!

As we pulled in to the campsite we recognized the campers right across the way as friends of ours from school. It was fun to see them there and Morgan loved it because she had a couple girls to play with for the first evening and the next morning. They walked down to the lake with us after dinner that night and offered to take a group pic of us. The kids all had fun running around together.

        Yep, that's pretty much what those little hands looked like all week. I just tried not to look when it was time to eat. We did lots of washing, but somehow they stayed grimy for 4 days. But he was happy!

 Campfire time! I like camping more or less for the campfire and smore time, and the kids loved it too. Since we and the Tamelings are such party pooper parents this was the only night the kids were up late enough to see the stars. The next two nights they were sound asleep before the sun even went down. But the parents sure enjoyed the quiet campfires and the kids enjoyed the much needed sleep time! Don't worry the kids got their smores before it was dark:)

                  Morgan, what was your favorite part of camping? "The smores!" That's my girl!

 We took the kids bikes and scooters along this year, which was an awesome decision. They spent hours riding up and down the hills and all over the rocks and dirt. Little Talen even got in on the action as he got his training wheels off that morning!

 Hudson and Talen playing trucks in the water. The weather was beautiful and the lake temps actually quite warm.

                                                                The big guys!

We love camping at Pinecrest because of all the fun we can have at the lake. The kids have a great time playing on the beach and swimming out to the buoys. We can get by without showering for 3 nights if we just take a dip in the water once a day. The older boys and the dads hiked around the lake one afternoon and the next afternoon they went kayaking and cliff jumping with some more friends who had joined us for the day.

Breakfast outside is so yummy! Happy tummies = happy kiddos.

Nightly wash in the lake. We would take the kids down and wash their upper bodies as best as we could, then we would wash their feet in the faucet once we got back to the campground and Kevin would carry the kids one by one to the tent so their feet were "mostly" clean.

                                                                      Sibling Love!

                                                                  Buddies!

 More sister/brother love. The lake in the evening is absolutely gorgeous! The lighting is perfect for pictures.

                            A family pic on the last night. Don't we look like we need showers??

Kevin and Ethan went fishing the first morning there and Ethan caught his first fish! And it was the only catch of the trip. He was pretty excited. I was impressed he would hold it. The last morning the dads took the older three fishing. Nothing was caught but they had fun. The second morning Ethan and Brooklyn were the early risers so I took them on a little walk down to the harbor, the lake at 6:30 in the morning is so calm and beautiful, it was early, but nice to be somewhere so beautiful. All in all I would say our camping trip was a success, memories were made and fun was had, but it was sure exhausting!