First Camping Trip of the Season

We ventured out for our first camping trip of the season last week. We were gone almost a whole week, so it was a brave one at that. The kids were pretty excited, or I should say Cailin was super excited. Andrew appeared like he didn't know what we were talking about when we discussed camping and sleeping in the camper and camp fires - etc. But he soon remembered and jumped right into his bed upon arrival to test it out.

We went with our neighbors and friends, Luke, Sarah, Caleb and Dawson. We went to Baker Park Reserve which is part of the Three River's Park District in Maple Plain, MN. It's super close and now with the new Hwy 12 bypass, it's really quick too! The weather was great, cool the first night (needed the heat on) and then pretty warm the following days (needed the A/C). A little bit of rain the last night overnight.

The assorted animals had to join (below) us on our trip as well. They mostly watched but occasionally were dragged to the different destinations....

Since we were there during the week, the campground was pretty empty, but then Friday night, things filled up. We spent time in the lake - Cailin and Caleb are little fish - they loved the water and we had to drag them out kicking. Andrew and Dawson hung out near the shore, getting their feet wet or playing in the sand. We also spent time at their huge playground as well as at our campsites playing with the large quantity of toys and bikes that we had brought. Made it really fun! Nevermind the pictures with the kiddos in their jammies - hey it was vacation right? The kids certainly kept busy. We were all tired by the end of each day.

S'mores were of course a big hit and everyone loved that too. On the last night, we pulled Cailin and Caleb out of bed (since they are the older two)so they could stay up late and sit around the campfire with the adults and they LOVED that. Cailin reported that was her favorite part.
Masher with lots of left over chocolate on his face. After this picture was taken, the chocolate was promptly wiped on mom's sweatshirt. Nice look!