A Camping We Will Go

Attia recently came up with a list of things that she wants to do, and she frequently reminds us of this during dinner.

1. Go Camping
2. Go to the Circus
3. Go to the Beach (so she can wear her sandals in the sand)

 Last weekend we decided to check something off of the list. Camping! As you can imagine, Attia was super excited.

We decided to make the trip part of the adventure, so we loaded up the tandem and the bike trailer and hauled all of our gear out to the "primitive" campsites at Woodridge Park on the southwest side of Clinton Lake. It was a bit of a haul, and Attia thought she saw plenty of good spots to camp along the way - mostly people's yards - and she was sure to point out each and every one. Lucky for me, being on the tandem the work load wasn't exactly split 50/50. Thanks honey! :-)

When we made it to the lake and down the trail to our campsite Attia was ready to get to work. She immediately wanted to start collecting sticks for the fire, set up the tent, and go for a nature walk. (She has gotten lots of ideas from her favorite cartoons.)

Our little activity director, ready to go

Checking out our part of the trail

After resting up a bit we got started on our little activity director's list.

But before we even got the tent set up we had our first wildlife encounter (I mean other than all the cows, horses, and sheep we saw on the ride out). Some rustling in the grass turned out to be a little turtle. We brought him over to the blanket for a minute, but he was pretty quick to make his escape. 

 After we said good-bye to the turtle, we got to work and ended up with a nice little campsite.

And we even managed to get a family picture with the camera dangling from a tree branch.

After dinner we took a little nature walk, and explored the trail from our campsite. On the way out we found fresh deer tracks, which Attia thought was pretty awesome. 

On the way back she was a little more focused on being the leader. :-)

When we got back to our campsite Attia got to stay up past her bedtime to make a special treat. Something else she had learned about from her cartoons - S'mores! She thought they were Delicious!

 In the morning we woke up to find our cooler and the remains of our treats strewn along the trail. I guess we forgot to put our food up high! Whoops! Must have been a tasty treat for a pesky raccoon.

Not long after getting up, Attia insisted on nature walk #2. We just did a short little one since mom and dad were going to have to ride back in just a couple of hours. 

Dad and Atti found some pretty little flowers for a pretty little girl.

When we got back from our walk we cooked up a breakfast of camp doughnuts and eggs. Yum!

After a little cleaning and packing we were loaded up and ready to make the trip back.

I would say our first family camping trip was definitely a success. Attia is already making plans for our next one. :-)