Camping!

We had an awesome weekend! Definitely our best camping trip so far. We went to Janes Island State Park.  It was great! Before we set up camp, we completed Park Quest #5 which was a short hike and canoe. 3Ks in one canoe and the other 3 in the other. KG was a little nervous as we started out but then enjoyed it. K and C really liked paddling.  Much fun. We cooled down in the nice nature center before setting up camp. 

 

James carefully picked out our site- which I think was the best in the park.  Beautiful especially at sunset (and seeing the full moon in the middle of the night). So many birds to watch and so quiet- we were the only people on our loop- empty campsites all around. And we loved that you could crab from a stone's throw from our tent! The kids probably would have crabbed all weekend- if we hadn't planned some fun outings! This is the view from our site. 

The kids also loved doing the Summer OLoopics- run one loop, bike the next, log carry the third and get prizes. Here's finishing up the golden log carry- the boys came back to cheer on KG. 

We did have a little high adventure Tuesday night. After yummy grilled hamburgers and s'mores, we went to bed but the tent was so hot and no rain forecasted so I said why don't we take the rain fly off. James didn't think that was a good idea so we comprised by pulling it up on the sides to let some air in. That probably didn't help us when the crazy high winds came in, with the pouring rain in the middle of the night. It felt just like being in the middle of a hurricane- the tent blew mostly down as we tried to get the kids to the truck at 4 am. It was pretty scary but thankfully no one got hurt, the tent wasn't damaged, and the campground had one dryer so we could dry our wet sleeping bags. We each had one change of clothes, towels, and swim suits in the truck so we stayed for the rest of our trip- a little stinky but great fun!

We spent Wednesday morning drying off and crabbing. We mostly used a crab line- the kids liked that it was fun and they could do it without our help. I loved watching their teamwork. One kid would pull the line, another use the net, another measure to see if it was a keeper, and someone the tongs. We caught 8 keepers and a ton more females and small crabs. Not much patience required for crabbing!

Here's C showing off one our crab catches. 

After lunch, we dragged our crabbers into the truck to go to Assateague Island. We stopped at the Visitor Center and watched the movie on the ponies. It was really good and the kids left super excited about seeing ponies. And talking lots about Misty of Chincoteague. I was praying to see ponies since it didn't look like the weather was going to let us go to the beach. But thankfully we saw both. Here's one of the dozen or so ponies we saw up close. KG liked the baby the best- even if he was a boy.

The beach was lots of fun- so thankful that God sent the rain while we were driving and the sun when we got to the beach!

Wed night we caught more crabs to have with our grilled chicken and fruit dinner. Then finished the night with popcorn, camping donuts, stories, and a nighttime walk. What a great day!

We were so thankful to have no rain over night so our tent finished drying and we could pack up in the morning which gave us more time for Park Quest #6 Pocomoke River State Park. We enjoyed another nature center, hike, and canoe. These canoes were much lighter so we did the whole loop- out onto the Pocomoke River. What a great trip!