Camping - Part I

 We just got back from a week long camping trip at Van Buren State Park.  Chad and I have always loved camping, we both have great memories from growing up and going on camping trips with our family.  So it was natural for us to begin camping after we got married and continue with our kids.  We wanted to begin our own tradition and making memories while camping with our family.  Elsa loved it last year and did so well.  But I was still quite nervous about camping with both Elsa and Gavin - especially since Gavin just started crawling.  The trip this year went really well, the kids did great and had a lot of fun.  However, I quickly learned camping with two kids is much different than camping with one child and much much different than without kids.  We are excited we were able to go and make great memories for and with the kids, but it was a lot of work!  Definitely not as relaxing as it was pre-Elsa and Gavin, but fun for the kids and that's what makes it all worth it.  We were able to take nice walks around the park each morning, spend time playing with Elsa while Gavin took his morning nap, go to the beach (even though the water was freezing!), enjoy a small chunk of time while the kids both napped in the afternoon, play at the playground (even though we had a terrible scare when Elsa fell off the top of a 13+ foot slide - thankfully she's a tough cookie and wanted to climb back up it and slide down again), shop downtown, and have campfires.    

Gavin slept from about 7:30/8:00 until 6:30ish each night.  Elsa...oh this girl!  She had the freedom of getting out of her bed and quickly found that she liked if Mommy or Daddy put her back in bed because one of us then slept there to get her back to sleep.  She usually went to bed much later than at home (8:00/8:30) and only slept until 5:45 maybe 6 if we were lucky.  So we had some early starts to our days!  Both kids went to bed late and took later afternoon naps than normal, but we had a fun time filling our days full of family activities.  We got to celebrate Father's Day and Chad's birthday while camping, so Elsa thought that was pretty great.  She was excited to help Chad open his gifts and enjoyed some of the "treats" we got for him.  

Gavin's Father's Day present he made at daycare.  

SO happy after a good nap!

We tried to make it to the beach each day.  The weather was nice for it, but the water temps were only in the 50s and eventually reached low 60s.  So once our ankles were numb it didn't feel so bad.  :)  We spent a lot of time playing in the sand.  

Gavin didn't know quite what to think when he sat in the sand...the texture was new and the little bit of cold water that washed up was a bit of a shock!

Elsa braving the cold water.

We had yummy breakfasts each morning.  

I took way too many pictures to fit them all into one post - Post II coming soon!