Our First Camping Trip!

Labor Day Weekend marked another new experience for Camp Clark. After hearing the weather was going to be beautiful and talking about it for months, we decided to skip the warm-up backyard tent experience and go for the gusto. So we packed up camp and headed south to Cleary Lake Regional Park (only 15 minutes from our home - just in case!). It was SO fun and Lindsey, Taylor & Dylan are true naturals (like their dad). We took our canoe, our bikes, a 2-room tent, our own porta potty (for the kiddos), and ALL the camping essentials - I never knew camping involved so much preparation (thankfully Dave has done this many times before)!! We camped in an area that only had 4 other family campsites and LTD met some new little friends (and so did we). It was gorgeous!! We had so much fun making campfires and grilling our evening meals over a fire and, of course, making Smores. Other highlights included canoeing, swimming at the beautiful sandy beach, reading at night with flash lights in the tent, singing campfire songs, playing at the playground, and bike rides (we did the full lap around the lake and LTD rode their bikes with training wheels the whole way around). Everything was perfect with the exception of me being on full alert each night (while everybody else snored heavily). I heard every hoot of the silly owl perched near our tent and all the scurrying around of racoons at night so needless to say, I didn't get much shut eye. The favorite saying out of the mouths of our babes over the wknd was "let's build a fire camp!" (vs. campfire). We look forward to alot more camping next year and LTD keep reminding us of that. Check out our KodakGallery Link (under right hand column on this blog) for alot more fun photos from camping and from the entire month.

More adorable sayings from LTD:

Lindsey:

"Look at this pretty smile" (as she lays on a big smile)

"Hey, you little stinker!" (to Dylan as he sneaks some of her food)

"I really sad, Mom. I miss Gramma & Papa SO much!" (as we're leaving the airport after visiting Papa & Grandma during their 3 hour layover in Mpls)

Taylor:
"I love you SO much, mommy" (as she hugs me tight and lays a super big kiss on my lips)
"What's goin' on in here?" (as she stomps in the bedroom where Dylan and Lindsey are being super loud)

"It's just a BABY school bus" (about a mini yellow bus that drives by)

Dylan:

"MUSTANG!" (as a Mustang car drives by). Lindsey responds, "That's right, Dylan". Dylan responds back, "I know cars!"

"Yuck" (after sipping from my coffee mug at the park while visiting with another mom). The mom responds, "you must like juice?" Dylan hesitates and responds, "No, I like beer!"

"I'm smokin' my tires!" (as we pedal up to the park and a man tells him how fast he is)

They continue to keep us laughing (most of the time)!!