4th of July camping

Our 4th of July weekend was spent up in the mountains near Asheville, NC camping. This was the first time that we've been camping as a family since Maddie was 8 months old. Dan and the girls (minus Eleanor) went camping up in PA last summer, but the girls both slept in a cabin, and the summer before that we went camping in Ohio, but again the girls slept in a cabin. So this was their first experience sleeping in a tent in the woods. We had an AMAZING time! Our camp site wasn't in the best location and the drive there and back (5 hours each way) was a bit hairy by hour 4 and the Duggar family moved into the camp site next door and was crazy loud (they weren't really the Duggar's, but there were seriously more than 15 kids!) but all in all it was a great trip! There were tons of kids, a picturesque swimming lake, fun kid activities and of course all the normal living outdoors excitement. We had such a good time we have already made plans to return to the same campground for Labor day weekend and we've caught the camping bug and are planning a trip up to the mountains of Virginia in the next few weeks. I grew up camping and have always really enjoyed it, but I've been skeptical about taking small babies/children camping and the summer in the south east is pretty camping prohibitive. We've discovered that if we drive 3-5 hours away we have much nicer weather and with a lot of planning (and a lot of packing) it's totally do-able with the littles! The girls had a really great time and I got some great memories captured with my camera. Can't wait for our next camping adventure!

The lake was awesome
not too big, not too small
deep enough, nice and cool
lots of inflatables

Our home away from home
the first night our old air mattress broke and we slept on the hard rocky ground
HORRIBLE!
the next day we went and bought a new mattress!

Ice cream and snacks at the snack shack

Really cool dock that the kids jumped off of into the lake

hot dog roasting

This didn't last long.....
she soon discovered the rocks
and then all she wanted to do was put them in her mouth! lol

Hot and sweaty nap time

Maddie wanted me to take a picture of her with her rock
wa-la

Evening karaoke

We attempted pizza making over the fire
It didn't turn out very well
Next time we'll use tin foil to make an "oven"

We had to put a towel under her so she couldn't reach those stinkin' rocks!

I think it's funny that she hiked up her shorts
She didn't go any deeper than ankle level :o)

Breakfast

Maddie collected moss

This isn't a great pic, but it makes me laugh
we went for a walk and the girls got tired but Dan wanted to
walk further and check a campsite out
So the girls sprawled out on the ground.
Charlotte looks beat. :o)