Carl actually ended up leaving and heading to WI to visit his grandma in the hospital on Tuesday night, which left me packing, loading the car and getting the kids out by myself for camping. A little crazy, but we made it! We went to the campground on our own Wednesday and Carl met us there later.
I am pretty sure there is nothing in the world that is more fun for little boys than camping. They would have stayed there forever. Dirt, rocks, sticks, fire, marshmallows, swimming, staying up late... the list goes on and they did not ever want to leave. In fact, Tyler insisted that we needed to stay there for seven more days.
Excited to see Papa Joe!
Thursday:
Carl and Tyler went fishing.
And Carsten and I went for a boat ride.
We are getting to be a big group to fit around the camper table! But we made it work. :-)
Then we went to the Norske Nook for dinner and pie.
Do you see the size of their pies? They were sharing a piece. It was ginormous!
Friday:
We started off with a trip to Weaver's - a little Mennonite store that we are all obsessed with. We go there every year for cheese curds, dried apples and candy. And sometimes some bulk spices. :-)
Camper playroom!
Enjoying the beach!
The boys made their own campfire next to the real one.
That night we went to bed in a perfectly dry and comfortable tent. But we woke up at 2:45 in the morning to a huge flash of lightning followed by the camp weather sirens. And at almost the same time Carl's mom texted him to warm us about severe weather coming our way. So we loaded the kids into the car and drove over to the bathroom where we spent a lovely hour in a shower stall with my parents and Emma and Kyle (and lots of other families). The storm sounded pretty crazy and we were glad we were there. Especially when we went back to find our tent all crooked from being blown around and soaking wet. And so we invaded the camper and spent the rest of our night with my parents. It was really nice of them to bring a camper that we could sleep in. :-)
Tired boys in the middle of the night!
Saturday:
The outside of our tent in the morning.
The inside was actually much worse. All of our cots and the pack and play were completely soaked, we had dripping wet sleeping bags and there were puddles all over the floor. I am so glad we weren't in there for that!
Some quality Grandma time.
Aria napped in a lot of random places on this trip.
I love these three. :-)
Baby Samson isn't really a baby anymore!
More delicious campfire treats!
Sunday:
The boys had fun decorating Lexi.
Cousin time!
Carl left Sunday night but I decided to stay one more night with the kids. They skipped naps and I took them boating one last time. Then when they were ready to go to bed a little earlier I got to play some cards with my mom and dad. :-)
My boating buddies!
They loved sleeping in sleeping bags! Carsten asked us to "bundle him" every night. :-)
Monday:
We had a fantastic last day at the campground. We went to the beach one more time and the boys spent lots of time exploring around the campsite.
It started with three deer in our campsite!
They watched them forever! And they were adorable running around in the woods with their little striped pajama shorts.
And then my dad told them about how white tailed deer put their tails up to warn the other deer of danger. So of course they put sticks in the back of their shorts and pretended they were deer. :-)
They kept running around, pretending to eat grass and yelling about danger.
Before we left we had to get pictures in front of a bat house. There were three by the bathroom and Tyler thought they were so cool. He has told me multiple times that his favorite part of camping was the bat houses.
I don't think Carsten really cared about the bat houses. But Tyler got a picture of front of one so he wanted one too. :-)
It was so much fun to camp this year. The boys were at a perfect age to really love it. They never, ever wanted to leave. And I can't wait to take them again! I'm so glad that I grew up camping with my family and that we still get to do it with them now!
