Camping at the lake

In June we had a wonderful camping trip with Grandma & Grandpa and Uncle Mike & Aunt Nikki - our first ever family vacation. Nikki organized the trip to a local state park that had everything we needed and much more. We rented a cabin right on the lake and a tent site and jumped right in to the offerings of the park and attached resort. Unfortunately I misplaced my camera after the first full day and so I'll have to wait on more pictures from the rest of the family. There were several "firsts" for the kids - including our "baby" having a first experience "painting" a stick using a feather or at least that is what he said he was doing in the second picture from the bottom. The big kids struck out on fishing but enjoyed their first real attempt. Some of our favorite activites were fishing, sleeping in a tent (my middle M backed out on the second night), skipping rocks, boating/swimming in the lake, swimming at the resort pool, arts and crafts at the rec center (where Uncle Mike dominated me at ping pong), horseback riding (where we saw several baby deer including a set of twins), hayride (where my big girl had her shoe stolen by some "outlaws"), visiting a nature center, taking a long hike (what better way is there to find ticks?), and cookout on the fire (including my favorite - smores). Hard to imagine that we crammed all of this and more into basically 2 days. Aunt Nikki did a great job of keeping us moving so that we could hit all of the main attractions. I will let her speak for herself but from my view, Aunt Nikki's highlight was breakfast burritos - a traditional camping food! We had such a wonderful time and made some great memories. We have vowed to go back this next summer and explore some more.