Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Memorial Day Camping


Over the Memorial Day weekend, we decided to take the boys on their first ever camping trip. So the first thing we did was contact our good friends Mark and Jennifer and their girls. Mark is an avid camper to say the least. We called him Camp-master Mark all weekend because he was prepared for anything and everything! He made sure that our first camping trip as a family was a success!

Meg used to camp a good bit before we meet and she would do backpack camping. I also did some camping pre Meg but mine was more of the car camping variety. Neither of us camped like we did with Mark and his family. Weeks before the trip, we were given lists of equipment to bring and menus for the meals that weekend. If there were items on the list that we didn’t already have, no worries, Mark had extras including a family sized tent! We were set!

On to the trip, Camp-master Mark found a great state park close and made reservations for a couple of their walk in sites for Memorial Day weekend. Since it was a holiday weekend we expected the campsites to be sold out and they were. Also, they wouldn’t reserve the walk-in sites so it was first come first serve. So Mark went up early on Friday morning and staked out the two best walk-in sites for us. One he set up the sleeping tents and the other was where he set up the dinning/living area including a tent for the kitchen. When I say kitchen, I mean kitchen. He had a tent over the table, the food prep area, the coolers, and of course the kitchen sink. You will see the set up in the pictures below.

So when we arrived, all we had to do is set up our instant tent that Mark let us use and the boy’s tent (which they didn’t sleep in). That weekend, we hiked, went to a waterfall, hiked some more, ate like kings, swam in the lake, made smores, had a talent show with the kids and had an all around good time. It was a great camping trip. Even though the park was extremely crowded that weekend, as long as we stayed in our secluded campsites, we thought we were the only ones within miles.

The only downside of the weekend was we had to put up all of our food each night back in our cars. This is due to bears being spotted in the park a few nights before we arrived. Since we were the most secluded sites in the park, we had a good trip back down the hill to the car each night with our coolers and bags of food. I guess that is a small price to pay for not having our kids eaten by a bear in the middle of the night! Actually we heard some rustling in the woods the first night and we doing everything we could to scare what ever it was away.

Anyway, here are some pictures from the weekend. Also, thanks so much Camp-master Mark for all of the preparation, setup and guidance. Of course thanks to the rest of the gang for a fun weekend: Pickles, OG, Little OG, King Cobra, Freckles, and Little Red.





Here are the boys roasting marshmallows


Here is a view of our living area

This is our kitchen/dinning area and in the background you can see our sleeping quarters.


Henry in front of the boys tent



Henry relaxing while Mark and Meg prepare dinner



Mark preparing a meal on the stove, please notice the sink



Mac, Natalie & Kate hanging by the fire



This is the sleeping wing of the campsite

 

This is the steep path to our campsite


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