annual family campout

We usually go camping every summer with my mom and dad and all 6 of us siblings and our families. This year was a bit of a crazy summer for all of us so it ended up just the girls going with mom and dad. We went to a close by campground and kept everything very simple this year. And we had a great time. Matt and Ella loved camping. What is better for a kid than getting to play in the water and dirt, go hiking, play with your cousins, build fires, sleep in a tent and eat a bunch of yummy junk food for three days? Needless to say they had a blast. Grace even enjoyed her first campout. She did amazingly well - and even slept great - always a huge accomplishment for camp. We all had a great time.

The campground we chose was close to Grandma and Grandpa's and also was near several caves. So on our last day we packed up and then went cave exploring all afternoon. Dad takes his high classes here on field trips so he gave us a great tour. At one of the sites he didn't tell us where the cave was - just let us explore the whole area where there were lots of really cool lava formations. We eventually found the big cave which was about 3 mins from where we had parked the car. But had he told us that we would have missed all the cool things we found exploring.

We didn't get any pictures of our caving adventures but here are several from our fun time at camp.