Camping!

Yesterday we headed out from our home to Tickfaw for a little bit of camping.  We loaded up the van and hit the pizza buffet on the way out of town.  

On the road.

Matthew tried to help James play some guitar on the way. 

The first order of business was to set up the tents.  3 to be exact.  

Then it was time to construct that evening's fire.  

Oh yea - we're ready now!

There is a limit of 6 people per campsite so we had to get two.  

Two tents here. 

And one across the street.  You can't see it too well which is a good thing.  This tent was a bit droopy because someone (me) didn't check equipment before we left and we only had one of two poles.  We improvised and used the poles from the screen tent.  They were a bit short - but it was better than a kick in the pants.  

Then we took a walk. 

And played for a bit on the playground we found in the woods.  

Then it was time to head back to camp and start our fire.  

We had burgers and chips and strawberries.  

Later we made s'mores.  

Not long after it got dark it was time for bed.  We were pretty exhausted anyway.  We piled into our tents and watched the lightning bugs blink in the dark and tried to sleep.  

This was nearly impossible for two reasons:  

Our fellow campers were rather loud until very late - including playing horrible music on some kind of horn (we heard the Star Wars theme in there somewhere) and some unruly kids with flashlights.  

Sleeping on the ground - even with a bedroll - is very, very uncomfortable for those of us young'uns who are older ;).  

Oh - and Peter kept throwing his leg over me . . . 

Needless to say, we were up at 5:30 impatiently waiting for enough light to venture out to the table for breakfast.  

5:30 am smiles

Cereal and bananas for breakfast.  

We then did some more 'nature walking' including a spontaneous "show" put on in a swamp pavilion by the kids.  

Our 'tired' look.  It was a good show. 

Boys on the boardwalk trail.

It says "B + C"  awe!

Snacks on our walk.  

We returned to camp and noticed some footprints left by visitors.  

Then we headed to the nature center where they were having a craft for the kids.  

Check out Peter. 

He looks a little apprehensive about the craft.  

They had little tree rounds on string and they decorated them as necklaces.  It was fun and a nice little keepsake for them to take home.  

Hot dogs over the campfire for lunch and then the kids changed into their swimsuits and we packed up camp.  We planned to head home after playing at the spray ground. 

Matthew had a BLAST there. 

And he slept most of the way home.  

So, we survived a one-night camp out at Tickfaw!  We planned on two nights, but we need to get some air mattresses or something if we're going to go again.