Site #24

Well, as I stated earlier, we planned a one night camping adventure at Lake Elmo down in Woodbury, MN. Both Kirby and I worked on Thursday but after we were done for the day, we packed up the kids and the blazer and headed south for our adventure!

Setting up camp was fairly easy. Everyone "pitched" in and soon we had both of our tents set up. Originally, we were just going down with one tent but after a phone call from Grandma Jeanine (telling us that she has a tent that she never uses and could send it to us FED Ex) we were lucky enough to have 2 tents. Which, in the end, was a lifesaver! We would have been very smushed with all of us in one tent.

After camp was set up we decided to take a walking tour of the park and the campground. We played at the BIG playground, watched some hot air balloons float across the sky, saw the sand bottom swimming pool and then headed back to our camp site to start up a fire.

After a few marshmallows and s'mores, the little ones got on their pj's and went to bed. Tyler, Kirby and I stayed up and played in the fire a bit. Tyler has been watching too much of the discovery channel this summer and likes to pretend that he's survivorman. Then it was off to bed!

For those of you who camp often, is it hard to fall asleep? Do you always get a good night's rest? Because I sure didn't!!!!!! I did eventually fall asleep but was awakened a few hours later by the sound of 'a creature' trying to push over our tupperware box of wood that was left out. I had forgotten that I put our marshmallows in the box when I went to bed and apparently a raccoon was trying to enjoy my mistake. So, after I figured out what was going on, I half whispered/half yelled to Kirby to wake up and see what was going on. I guess he was already awake though and was working on finding a flashlight to go and investigate.

Our next wake up call was our little, Logie bear who is turning out to be quite the morning person. Apparently for him, daybreak is his time to get up and and start his day. Unfortunately, quite hours are from 10pm-7am and it was only 5:30. So, both Kirby and I took him for walks and keep him distracted by starting up a fire and before we knew it, it was 7am and he could be loud! Here's a picture of him looking in his big brother's tent and yelling for him to wake up.

After everyone else awoke, we had breakfast and then put on our swimming suits and headed over to the pool for a few hours. The pool at Lake Elmo is unique as it's a chlorinated pool but with a sand bottom. The kids swam and played in the sand and after a quick snack, Tyler decided we should bury him in the sand. Which we all gladly agreed to!

Next it was time to head back to our camp site and pack things up so we could head over for our annual summer outing to Como Zoo.

I have many fond memories of Como Zoo from my childhood days and enjoy coming back their every summer to see the same animals that have been there since I was 6 years old. It just never gets old to me and there's nothing better than watching your children get excited when they first see the monkey swinging on a tree or a seal swimming in the water. Unfortunately, the polar bear was not available (which is my favorite animal at this zoo) as they are working on building a new exhibit. We spent time watching the animals and then went on a few rides in the park. Logan was able to experience his first 'carnival' ride with his big sister. I admit, I was a little nervous about letting him go on a ride but he loved it.

By this time in the day, it was time to head home. It was a nice outing for us, especially since summer is winding down and football started on Monday(already!) Kirby's weekends and days off are somewhat limited in the summer due to his schedule of working at the pool. Our camping trip was a success but next time I think we'll try to stay for 2 nights because it's A LOT of work to just get set up for one night. Our hope for the future is to be able to go camping in other parts of the state with our friends and their kids. Happy Camping!