A Summer of Camping

In total, we have gone camping 4 weekends this summer.  All (but one of the trips) have been a Thursday to Sunday outing.  Vera has had so much fun playing and enjoying the outdoors.  Vince is at a hard age to take camping.  He wants out and down to crawl and explore.  As each trip went by, it became harder and harder to keep him entertained.  Overall, he did very well sitting in his stroller and playing with toys in his inflatable "cage."  Both kids were great sleepers while camping, though Vince figured out how to undo the safety gate on his bunk about half way through summer.  Adam enjoyed cooking good food over the fire and the peace and quiet around the campfire.  I enjoyed a little downtime in a lawn chair and had fun watching my kids have fun.

These pictures are from our mid-July outing to St. Marys with the Bertke Family.  It should've been a trip to Huggy Bear, but due to excessive rain and flooding, St. Marys was plan B.  It was very wet and muddy the entire weekend, but we made the most of it.

Here's one of our great meals we enjoyed.  Jeff smoked brisket and Adam made hand cut french fries and onion rings.  Tasty!

Blake, Vera, Eli and Vince.  Notice how everyone is playing nicely except for Vince.  Story of the summer.

I take that back.  Here's evidence that he played nicely, just not for very long.

One morning, Vince woke up around 5:30 because he was cold.  We knew he wasn't ready to get up for the day, but in a camper, we have very limited options on how to put a child back to sleep.  So, Adam took him outside and started breakfast around 6:30.  Vince watched them build a fire and eventually fell asleep.  Adam parked him under the awning of the camper, and he slept like this for another 2 hours.

Typical Bertke family campfire.  Here they are fashioning something to hold the hotdog forks.

Our last camping trip was to Ouabache with the Magoteaux and Shardo families.  We had perfect weather and great campsites.  Everyone did lots of biking.  We were right next to the playground, and Vera spent about 50% of her days playing there.  She played there alone sometimes, or just made friends with the kids who were there at the time.

All smiles before bed one evening, even though he was exhausted.

Good morning, my little sunshines!

All the kids, minus Vince.
l to r: Salimah, Vera, Nolan, Ryan, Emerson, Ava and Reece

Instead of the pool one day, we rented paddle boats and enjoyed the lake.  Vince and I stayed behind for naps.  Thanks to Donneta for sharing these great pics.

Front: Adam and Ava
Back: Salimah and Vera

They also checked out the bison on their ride back.  Unfortunately the fire tower was closed for repairs, so the kids weren't able to climb to the top.

Even though camping is a lot of work for mom and dad, Vera has had a blast and Vince loves it outside.  We made many great camping memories this summer.