Well, I'm home today with a sick kiddo. I realized I never posted about our first camping trip. It was an adventure! Nate has been wanting to camp for a while. He had a few camping things that used to belong to his grandpa. We bought a tent, and we were ready to go.

Our tent all set up

Eli trying out his new chair

We went a couple weeks before school started. Our friends had gone camping on Lake Michigan at a place called Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. They'd stayed in the State Park, but I guess you have to call and get reservations pretty far in advance. They were booked, so we stayed at the National Park camping site. It was a beautiful place to stay. We picked out our site and started putting up our tent ~ only to have 1 million mosquitos attack us. They were pretty pesky! We went through an entire family sized bug spray in only 2 days. Our poor kids looked terrible.

We explored for a while then cooked up dinner over the fire! Yummy, it was good. It's been a couple months so I can't remember exactly what we had, but all the food turned out great!:) We had marshmallows and smores for the kids to eat. We usually are pretty careful about how much sugar they eat, but we figured they'd worked it off during the day.

Then it was time for bed! Nate and I got the air mattress and the kids were in sleeping beds on the floor of the tent. We were almost asleep when we heard the unmistakeable sound of a child getting sick! Poor Colby, he was sick all night. Mommy didn't get much rest either! Thankfully he only got it on 1 blanket and didn't get his sister who was sleeping right beside him.

The next morning, he was a little weak, but otherwise he was ready to go! We headed off to Mount Baldy. It's a huge dune that has been moving inland a little every year. The boys were dressed to swim, but Noelle and I had our suits to change into. It was quite the climb up to the top of Mt. Baldy. By the time we climbed, we were ready for a swim. We decided to walk back and change. As we started back on the trail (through the woods), Eli started to cry. I looked at him, and his whole back was black (covered by mosquitos). We decided to head to the State Park's beach instead of brave the mosquitos again!

Ready to take the trail up to Mt. Baldy

Mt. Baldy

Colby and Noelle down by the water


Colby and Daddy heading back up the dune

The kids had a wonderful time at the beach. The waves were a little rough for Noelle and Eli, so they played in all the sand. Colby loved jumping and diving in the waves!

Playing at the beach

cooking hotdogs and baked beans

On the beach in our sweatshirts and jeans (hoping to keep the mosquitos off)

Finally it was back to the tent for a much more peaceful night. We had a fun time, but maybe next time the mosquitos will stay away!