Fourth of July Camping Overview, Part 1

We love any opportunity for camping. We were very excited about our weekend of relaxing and getting away from the normal life for a little bit. We planned a long weekend and were looking forward to catching up with a couple of Craig's long-time friends during the holiday weekend. We headed out of town on Thursday afternoon and the fun began right after we set up camp at Tanner State Park.

a nice walk around the lake

getting in a little bit of fishing

yummy goodies - ice cream sandwiches and smores

Friday morning, we headed out for another walk around the lake. We decided to hunt for worms for our later fishing trips. Kalyn loved picking up all the worms she could find. Trinity and Xander needed a bit more encouragement, but was having fun by the end. We came back to our camper with plenty of fishing bait.

Kalyn even found a little snail that she carried around awhile before we convinced her that the snail would be happy back in the woods.

Lunchtime brought a lot of excitement and a trip to the emergency room with Trinity - and will bring a blog post of it's own. So, we'll jump to later for now.

Craig's parents were able to join us for dinner and a bit of fishing with our newly found worms. Craig was the winner as he caught the first fish of the trip. Each of the kids wanted to touch the fish before we put in back in the pond.

Charles Ray was a great help with teaching Trinity the tricks of the trade. She got a lot of bites, but just wasn't fast enough to reel one in. At one point, Trinity asked if Papa knew how to fish. We assured her that he knew exactly what he was doing.

Kalyn was great to watch. After a while of casting and not catching anything, she decided to move to another tactic. She simply dropped her line right in front of her and stared intently at the bait. I think she simply really enjoyed watching the fish eat her worm. It was just adorable to observe.

And what camping day isn't complete without smores all around?

Saturday, we were planning on heading to a nearby town for a Fourth of July parade and then meet up with one of Craig's high school friends at Craig's parents' home for some swimming a grilling out. That also will bring its own post. That morning, we had more fun.

After Trinity's accident we decided to play it safe(er) with the other two.

We fed the ducks with some bread that the squirrels found - well, what was left over from it. Xander was hilarious to listen to as he called the ducks. The kids loved it!

We stopped by one of the nearby playgrounds. The kids had a blast on the slides, the monkey bars and on the tire swing.

We also saw a unique thing. We often see pets around campgrounds, but we don't see pet goats very often. It clearly made the weekend more memorable.

Two more days of camping to go and lots of pictures, so we'll split it here. More in the next post.