More Summertime & Our First Family Campout

We are doing what we can to enjoy the summertime - at least when the weather isn't particularly hot and muggy. The girls have done some art projects painting pictures. Lydia got a little messy doing it, but I guess that's why we took them outside to do it. We have started putting some of their pictures up on the wall in the office, and they like the chance to create new exhibits.

We took another trip to a state park (Greenbrier) with a beach around a lake so the girls could splash and play. They liked having the buckets and shovels to make sand castles and things.

Karina and Lydia decided one day to put their hats on backwards and put their sunglasses on. Not sure where they got the idea, but it was funny enough to document.

Our biggest and latest adventure was we went on our first family campout. Shortly after we got married, Tanja got me a tent for my birthday. It has stayed in its original packaging for years - we had different adventures and never got the camping bug. We figured the girls were old enough now that they might enjoy the adventure, so we took a two hour trip to Rocky Gap State Park for a campout. The girls were excited to try something new. I wanted them to see more stars than we are typically able to see at home with our light pollution, but it happened to be a full moon night. Oh well, at least the full moon helped with concerns that they wouldn't have their night lights and would get scared in the dark if they woke up in the middle of the night. Here are pictures of our accommodations for the night with the girls:

Snoopy came too and was excited to have a lot of new sniffs and the chance to dig for buried treasure, like potato chips that previous campers had left on the ground.  We also had enough confidence in him not running away that he spent a good amount of time without his leash on just roaming around the campsite.  He was very trustworthy and stayed close to us.

It was another fun outing as they played in the water at this lake and in the sand along the beach. Snoopy came along too, and found several more potato chips in the sand.

Night time was entertaining. Lydia was very excited about the campfire - as soon as I lit it, she started singing "Happy birthday to you." Guess she only has seen fire in association with birthday cake candles. Karina was so excited to eat s'mores. I helped her toast marshmallows, and was excited to introduce her to this traditional camping treat. Of course, all she wanted was to eat the chocolate. Guess camping and Halloween are similar for her.

The girls spent a lot of time playing in the car among all the things we packed while we were getting things ready for the night. It was pretty cute.

Before we left, we took a little hike along the canyon and made it to a pretty overlook. It was a nice walk and a good way to end our camping adventure.

Back at home, the girls continue to love playing dress-up and the results are frequently comical.