Camping Out.

We spent several days up north over 4th of July weekend with our friends John and Carrie, their son Lil John, and another couple of our friends Keith and Julia.

After packing up our newly purchased tent trailer,

we jumped in the truck and headed up to Munds Park.

This was the first time the girls (and Jake) had been camping.

It's been several years for both the Husband and I.

Overall, it was a very good trip.

It turns out that Jake is a very good traveler.

He spent the trip snoozing in between Kaeleigh and Maylyn.

Sometimes right in Maylyn's lap.

We got up north in record time and found a really great camp site.

The girls were trying to help Bill set up the trailer.

Once we got all settled in we had dinner and played horseshoes.

I have more pictures of that but somehow I had messed up the setting on my camera and they all turned out blurry.  :(  These two are the best ones.

Our friends weren't going to be able to make it up until later in the evening so the Hubs and I were trying to figure out how exactly they were going to find us in the middle of the woods, in the dark, with no cell service.  Our solution was to make a sign and stick it on a folding chair we found in the woods.  Genius?  Totally.

It turned out to be a total life saver because they didn't make it to camp until midnight.

The next couple days were full of fun and food.

The kids had a great time.

Lil John was teaching them how to do the Robot.

This is their version of playing giant horseshoes.

Put them around your waist.

It turned out to be pretty cool overnight up there and this is how we found the kids one morning.  Jake was curled up in between them.  Poor baby got cold too.

We played some badminton.

And taught the kids how to play Go Fish.

Or Go Fishie as Maylyn calls it.

Here's the trailer all set up.

My favorite feature?

The toilet.

It saved us from making trips outside in the middle of the night to go potty in the "potty tent" we had set up.

John had brought a tv and satellite so that they wouldn't miss the UFC fight.

Carrie, the kids and I took advantage of that and watched some cartoons.  Only about a half an hour because we didn't want to waste the battery.

(Amazingly, this is the only picture on my camera that I made it into.)

Jake was pretty much having the time of his life.

He looks like such a big boy here.

I'm such a proud mama.  :)

I took this picture from my seat in the woods.

Absolutely amazing up there.  And the weather was perfect!

There were several nature walks taken that required walking sticks.

As well as some bubble blowing.

As a mom I had to get creative with activities to keep them entertained in the woods without packing up their whole room.

We had such a blast.

Making smores and cooking up Jiffy pop.

I haven't laughed so hard in such a long time.

We can't wait to do it again.

Jake had a little too much fun.

The crazy monster needed a pillow to lay on for the drive back home.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend.

We sure did.