Camping Trip

We are back from camping today! We had a very good time together as a family and with some friends who visited over July 4th. Some of the highlights:

Swimming at the beach
Building sand castles
Sitting around the campfire
Great camp food including some roasted apples stuffed with raisins, butter, and cinnamon sugar
Riding bikes
Visit to the nature center at the state park
Butterfly catching
Owl prowl (a local expert on owls took a group through the woods looking for owls)
Climbing a huge sand dune and running down
Flying owl kites on the beach
Walking on trails through the woods

We had heavy rain the first night we were there, and then a beautiful 3 or 4 days of perfect weather. Unfortunately, the weather on the 4th was lacking and we packed up damp this morning. The first two or three nights were so warm we didn't want to get into our sleeping bags. Then, one night the temperatures dropped into the 40s and we were glad we had them with us. Mike and Avritt managed to catch some nice waves on boogie boards one of the days. We caught tadpoles in the stream that runs into the lake. We saw a bard owl flying around the woods and one night it interrupted our sleep late at night with its loud hoot. It was a great time with the kids. They enjoyed being able to ride their bikes around the campground, the snacks that I don't usually have at home, and s'mores.