In July we went camping for three nights at
Honeyman State Park. It was our longest camping trip since the twins have joined us =). We camped there for the
first time last summer and just loved it! Such a beautiful place with private, spacious tent sites. Nice, clean bathrooms. Beautiful trails. A gorgeous lake. Giant sand dunes.
What more can ya ask for?
The twins were ridiculously excited once we finally arrived and got our camp set up. They were being goofballs running from the campfire...
David booked this trip while I was in New Mexico, and I ended up being so grateful he took the lead and made this happen for our family. It's been SUCH a busy season, I had felt like maybe leaving town for four days would be stressful and not really worth all the effort of packing to camp.
I was so, so wrong.
It wasn't an hour into our first afternoon there before I gave Dave a sloppy wet kiss and thanked him for making this happen!
We really all needed the time away from the busy days to just be together, in nature.
Family game of Trouble our first evening there...
We put the kids to bed late that night, and then Dave and I stayed up and talked by the campfire for a few hours underneath the stars.
SO good for the soul.
The next morning we got up and had a lazy morning around the camp site...the kids explored, while Dave and I drank coffee and read.
These two took a bit of time to warm up to the freedom/wilderness, but once they did, they were constantly in the bushes around our site...
With our upcoming travel, we finally gave in and bought our kids electronic tablets this spring. We had been putting off purchasing any form of leapster/ipad/kindle because...well, honestly, because we watch enough TV around here and I just didn't want to have kids that were constantly entertained by electronics. But we knew that we'd need something to have for a 19hour day of travel, so we bought the kids each a Kindle Fire. They've LOVED them, and we're glad we bought them.
But, we want to be intentional about getting away from ALL electronics (Dave and I didn't even bring our phones) and knowing how to entertain yourself.
Like with sidewalk chalk...
or searching for new trails...
...and playing Frisbee...
...or paddleball...
...mainly just being together...
After a lunch by the campfire, we headed to the lake and dunes for the afternoon...
This year, Abbey declared she was going to climb the sand dune...
And she did!!
(that's her crawling near the steep top - camera on zoom)
Our girl is so determined. She tells me no less than five times a day "I got this, Mom" about whatever it is she's trying to do.
So, so proud of her!
The kids had fun swimming in the lake and digging in the sand...
An older boy - probably 10 or 11- found a newt and let the kids hold it. They were THRILLED. Especially Abbey. She played with that poor thing for like an hour. She made it a little home in the wet sand right at the water's edge, and was devastated when we told her it couldn't come home with us.
After a few hours at the beach, we came back to camp and showered up, and played around the camp site for the evening...
(notice anything similar about the posture of both my boys in the photo below??)
David teaching the kids all about the Art of a Good Fire =)...
We all crashed pretty early that night!
The next morning Dave got a campfire going early for us to enjoy some toasted bagels for breakfast...
That morning we split up and took separate hikes with the kids. David and Luke went one way, and Abbey and I another, and then we all met up back at camp an hour later...
It was good to just let the kids lead where they wanted to go, and also let them just talk about whatever they wanted to talk about.
After lunch around the camp fire, we headed back to the lake for some pedal-boating!
Bare feet dangling in the lake...pretty idyllic summer if you ask me!
We played around in the lake for a bit that afternoon as well...
(David and Abbey)
And then back to the camp site to play...
After dinner we played some Go Fish...
And then we sat around the campfire and ate s'mores and played 20 Questions. David and I always play on road trips and camping and such, and this was the first time we taught the kids how to play...they did pretty good! We limited it to "People We Know" (like from Church or in our family) and "Characters" (from movies and shows and books) and they caught on right away, even stumping us a few times!
That night after the kids went to sleep, David and I played Yahtzee by the fire light, a camping tradition for us =).
At one point, he rolled a perfect palindrome...do you see it?
The last morning there, I woke up incredibly refreshed.
No seriously.
David even grabbed the camera and captured this moment of me stretching in the sunlight...
Happy.
We changed up our walking partner, and I went for a walk with Luke that morning, while Abs and Dave went for theirs. An hour later, we met back up at our site, and began to tear down camp.
Luke spied on the neighbors breaking down their camp while we took down ours...
Then it was on the road! Luke made it about an hour into our three+ hour drive before he crashed, Abbey on the other hand enjoyed watching movies in peace =).
We came home, and took three days to get caught up on laundry and getting the sand out of everything...
Worth it.
