Camping Adventures

We had a fun weekend camping in an area our church owns and usually uses for the youth to do campouts. We took my friend's oldest daughter, Ximena, with us to help out with the kids and Heidi loved sharing "the girls' tent" with her. Asher, Leif, and Trevor all shared  "the boys' tent" and Natlaie slept with Austin and I in "the parents' tent". Despite too many mosquitoes, we had an enjoyable time and the kids loved it so much. It was well worth the all the effort it takes to pack beforehand and cleanup afterward.
Here are Austin and Leif carving a stick

Asher digging just for the fun of it

Heidi and Ximena playing in the hammock

Trevor digging

Heidi eating a dinner we cooked in aluminum foil over the fire coals

The boys messing around with marshmallows while the dinner is still cooking

And eating s'mores

Practicing their archery (Leif was the most eager to do this because he loved it so much with his Grandpa in September. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of him because I had to go get hats for the younger kids)

Leif really enjoyed snuggling Natalie in the hammock whenever I asked him to hold her

Here is Heidi warming up after a swim in the cold lake

I made Austin get in the lake with the kids because I had Natalie ;)

Here are Asher and Natalie in the bug shelter to keep all the mosquitoes away from our little lady

The kids made s'mores two nights in a row and were eager to eat them as soon as dinner was over

Austin brought his miniature hatchet with him and found a use for it even though the firewood was already cut at the camp

This was Austin's view from his hammock

One of the best parts about the trip for me was getting to go out canoeing with just Asher while Leif and Heidi held Natalie for me. I had missed the earlier canoeing trip because I was in the tent with Trevor and Natalie trying to take a nap- something that never really happened because Trevor was jumping all over the tent.

We stayed down at the lake and watched the sunset over the water, which was beautiful. While we were there, Leif spotted a fox (which Trevor tried to get me to follow, but it was gone in under 10 seconds). We had intentions to stay up until it was completely dark to do some star-gazing, but as it just happened to be the summer solstice and Trevor was completely melting down from lack of sleep, we decided to just go to bed and try another night. Austin and I laughed later that we would try to look at stars on the longest day of the year.

Asher and Leif will climb up anything they possibly can

On our last morning there, Austin took all the kids in the canoe again while Natalie and I stayed on shore and enjoyed a nice lake breeze- another of my favorite moments from the trip

One thing the kids loved most about the trip (besides loving everything about camping) was taking rides in the ATVs owned by the missionary couple that live at the camp and take care of everything there. On one of the rides, Heidi, Asher, and Leif saw a pair of beavers. We also saw a deer, a turkey, and of course other birds and squirrels. The kids can't wait for our next camping trip (although I need a little recoup time before all that planning and cleaning up happens again)