Camping at Pike Lake

We had a long fourth of July weekend ahead of us, with Brad being off Friday through Tuesday, so Brad decided he wanted to take Bennett camping for the first time.  We decided to just do one night at a place semi-close, Pike Lake State Park.  They have a nice beach area, pretty woodsy sites, plus it's only a 30 minute drive there.  Bennett has been talking about camping for months, so we were really excited to take him.  Eleanor and I hung out until bedtime, then we came back in the morning.  Eleanor was REALLY upset when I put her in the car to take her home - she did not want to leave!

Working on getting the campfire started.

Monkey see, monkey do.

S'mores of course! :)

Sorry it's blurry, but the kids just LOVED playing in the tent and on the air mattress.  The thought it was the coolest thing.

Ben did GREAT sleeping in the tent...mostly because they didn't go to bed until 9pm (went on a night hike after the girls left and found a giant toad).  He was up early - around 5:50am.  Then we came back for breakfast and hung out at the beach/fishing for the morning.  Ben had such a fun time, and so did Brad!  But man, it's a lot of work to go camping for just one night - you need pretty much the same amount of stuff as for a week or weekend (just less food).  Haha, but still worth it.