Camping at Bluewater Lake

Brad had his first weekend off in almost a month this past weekend--and boy did we all need the break from his long work hours! Even though we still have a lot of unfinished projects at home that have been calling our name, we decided that we needed to have some family time and get away from it all. I did a little research on nearby camping spots and we ended up going to Bluewater Lake State Park. It was less than an hour and a half away, and offered hiking, a lake, a playground, and a place to camp. It seemed to fit the bill for what we needed so we decided to give it a try.

It was so nice to have some family time as that is hard to come by these days with Brad's extremely demanding schedule. I felt we were all able to reconnect and have some fun together. Ella kept jumping up and down saying "I'm so glad Daddy is home today". Needless to say, we were all pretty pleased with our weekend. We played in the lake, made tin-foil dinners and smores for dessert, played games in the tent and read books during a brief rainstorm (this actually ended up being one of the highlights of the trip), went hiking, and overall just enjoyed being outdoors together. Ella LOVES camping and hiking so she had been looking forward to this trip for a while. She is already asking when we can go again!

Here are some picture highlights. . .

This was supposed to be just a "feel the water on your feet" kind of event while our dinner was cooking. However, moments after this picture was taken Maggie decided to dive in head first. Needless to say, she got pretty cold after that. I'm glad I brought an extra change of clothes for her!
Goofing off at dinner. . .
Waiting out the rainstorm. . .
Reading with Daddy
"Who likes camping? . . . Me!! "

Smores by the fire--you can't go camping without it! (The differences between these girls are so funny! Ella was so nervous and cautious around the fire and always wanted us to be right next to her and hold her. Maggie on the other hand was so fascinated by it and like a moth to a flame, it was hard to keep her away! )
Starting our hike in the morning
Ella wanted a picture of herself by the river--she was so proud that she walked across the rocks and the log and crossed it by herself! (By the way, look how handsome my husband is--what a hottie! :))

We had to cross another "river". It was higher than normal so you couldn't go across the rocks--I had to carry Ella on this one.
We borrowed this backpack from our friends--we couldn't have done the hike without it. I thought Maggie would hate it, but she actually did really well and even took a little nap during part of the hike. Now we may just have to ask for one of our own for Christmas. . .
Taking a snack/drink break
We actually got lost on this hike--without going into too much detail, we hiked to a high point to figure out where we were. Imagine our surprise when we got to the top of the cliff and realized that we were supposed to be on the other side of the valley! The hike we were going on made a loop from the canyonside of the campground. We thought we were starting out on the lower side of the loop when we were really starting out on the upper side. Oops! Luckily, Ella is a fantastic hiker and didn't mind the extra length and we were resourceful enough to find our way back! Besides, it made it so we got this great picture, right?

We all enjoyed ourselves very much and are hoping we can get out at least one more time before winter comes. . .