Camping (with Siedors and Cunninghams)

 

This summer we're on a mission to try out some new campgrounds in the area that we haven't yet been too.  Ryan's better about pushing the envelope than I am...mostly because finding something new takes work (and more than work...it takes TIME!).  But, as usual, he's right.  New is fun.  Somehow it's been years since this group has done a camping trip together.  I think the last time we a backpacking trip to Kettle Moraine that happened before any of the kiddos in this picture were even born!

We tested out the Maquoketa Caves in eastern Iowa (pronounced Ma-Coke-Et-A) and we loved it!  We hiked for a good bit of time on Saturday between a morning hike and a guided evening cave tour by the camp host.  I bet we put in a solid 4 miles of hiking between the two hikes and we didn't even get to see all of the caves or hike on all of the trails.  This will definately be a repeat location for us going forward.  The campground is small, maybe less than 50 total sites and the caves made for some interesting hikes.  It reminded me a lot of the topography/geology of Starved Rock State Park.

The kids had an amazing time and played so well together.  They even worked together to engineer a homemade swing that they made themselves, strong into a tree, and pushed each other on.  Pretty creative!

We tried out a new 'smores recipe courtesy of pinterest or Instagram.  You put all the standard 'smore ingredients into an ice cream cone, wrap it in foil and toast it.  Jury is out on if it'll become the new standard.  I think I prefer the regular old fashioned 'smore myself.

The weather held out for most of the trip.  It was forecasted to rain for a good bit of Saturday, but it held off til about 10 or 11 pm Saturday night which was amazing.  We got to do all of the fun outdoors camping stuff we wanted without being rained out.  The tenters in the group were a little damp on Sunday morning, but overall everyone faired really well.  My guess is that all the kids slept really well on Sunday night.

We're so thankful that we've got this tribe of friends and family around us to travel with and raise our kids with.  It's way more fun to do live as a big 'ole group of friends!