Camping at Kelley's Island: Around the Camp

When Jared and Eli got back from their camping trip and they told me of all their adventures, I thought to myself, "We need to go camping as a family!" So I asked Jared and he loved the idea. The next week, summer school officially ended and we left for a nearby camping area about 30 minutes away.

(I use to laugh at my parents for only taking us kids camping at a campground that was only 15 minutes away, but now that I think about all the stuff they had to pack, and the fact that they would go home every day to restock our food items and pick up our bicycles, I don't blame them. )

In the car, on our way. I don't know why Kenzie is wearing a hat in the car, those were meant for the night while they slept to stay warmer, but she really wanted to wear it.

If you ask my dad what the first S.O.P. (standard operating procedure) is, he would say that we need to set up communications. (My dad is a ham radio guru and needs to have his stuff all set up, even in the woods!) Jared asked the kids what the first S.O.P. is and they said, "The fire?" "Nope," he said, "we need to set up our tent!"

After that, we started the fire, put in our tin foil dinners that were pre-made at home, and enjoyed getting to know our new home for the next 5 days. We did a lot of exploring, which you will see in the next post. But for now, just enjoy our life around camp.

Once the sun went down, it got chilly enough for the kids to wear their coats, but not too chilly, I just wanted them to be comfortable.

Along with our tin foil dinners, we also made peach cobbler in the dutch oven. While we waited for that to cook, we made homemade whip cream. We each took turns shaking the mason jar full of heavy whipping cream, a little sugar, and some vanilla until it was nice and creamy.

Jared and I did most of the shaking.

I am going to do a post on the foods we ate but right here, Jared is enjoying an apple pie we made out of cinnamon bread and apple pie filling. We have a little contraption thing that makes pie, you just put it into the coals and it cooks the pies up real nice.

Lexie helped make a few of them but wasn't interested in eating one.

I am just hanging out with Jordyn. She loved to crawl all over the camp. It made for one very dirty baby, but she loved it!

(She is dressed up so nice because it was Sunday and we had driven back to town to attend church. I just hadn't changed her yet. She spent most of that day in her play pin anyways.)

Jared got this hammock in Ecuador on his mission and so he was thrilled that we actually got to use it. I loved it that my mom and dad had one when we went camping while growing up, so I am glad that Jared had this one for our family to use now.

I think the kids spent most of their time in camp on the hammock.

Mack, Lex, and Eli

All my girls on the hammock

Lex, Kenzie, and Jordyn

More time by the fire pit. As you can see, when we had a fire going, Jordyn was confined to her play pin. The kids just loved holding their sticks in the fire. They were really good around the fire.

I am always afraid of the kids being cold at night when we camp, so we tried to make sure that they had extra blankets and hats to wear. I wore a hat all night because I am always afraid of something crawling in my ears....creepy crawly shivers just thinking about it!

Jordyn always crawls out from under her blankets and so I put Eli's coat on her. I meant to bring her snow suit so that is wouldn't matter if she thrashed around at night but I forgot it. She seemed to do well after the first two nights of trial and error.

I kept taking pictures of us because Jared was closing his eyes every time the flash went off. I obviously never got a good picture with all our eyes open. Oh well!