Camping 2010

This past weekend, the Erickson 5 along with Grandma Mary, Grandpa Al, and Uncle Tony spent the weekend camping!  We all had such a great time even with a few clitches in the plan.

I love to camp.  I grew up spending a lot of time tent camping with my family.  I remember that back in those days, we would go tent camping with out air mattresses or even cushions to sleep on.  Now we have big air mattresses that we bring along and even the old "dogs" aka Grandpa, can learn to bring some simple things such as air mattresses to sleep on.

Riding Bikes to Smokey's House

Playing with Smokey's Toys

We also managed to bring up the kids bikes and Grandma Mary's and My bike so we could do some biking.  The kids loved to ride their bike around the camp ground and we even took a long journey one day to go see where Smokey the Bear lives.  He was out fighting a forest fire so we did not get to meet Smokey in person but it was still fun to see his house and play with some of his toys.  The kids also had fun tubing behind Grandpa Al's boat.  I am not sure who laughed the most, the kids or Grandpa.  One day we went to the big sand hill and the kids loved to run up and then down the hill into the water.  They spent a lot of time swinging from the rope swing to but we forgot the camera so we did not get any good photos of that.
Friday night we did end up getting hit by a pretty big rain storm and I think there was about 1.5" of rain that fell.  The kids sat in the van and watched a movie while it passed.  We managed to stay dry in our tents but we did have to run to town the next day to dry our towels that were out on the lines when the rain came.  The kids were big sports about the weather and the entire weekend.  There was no fussing and they LOVED sleeping in the tent.  Jon and I got them new sleeping bags for the trip and they thought those were so fun.  There is even a pouch in the bag for a small stuffed animal to sleep.

Tired out at night after being one with nature all day

It was a great weekend and one that we all vowed to do again next year.  It is great to see the kids enjoy the great outdoors.  Catching bugs, swimming, biking, and just enjoying nature.  It was all so refreshing.