Lake Elmo Reserve Camping

Summers get so busy and we really wanted to get out camping this summer so when we had a free weekend we looked into different campgrounds and decided on Lake Elmo Reserve Park. It was perfect for us! It's only 20 minutes from home and it had what we needed (a place to swim and play)! We got a "primitive" campsite, which was a little ways from our car, but after walking through the modern campground (with hookups) we realized this was perfect for us! We had space and there were only 5 campsites and they weren't all right next to each other.

While I was packing things up on Friday I decided to pull our tent out to make sure everything was in the tent bag. I'm REALLY glad I did, as our tent wasn't in the bag--the rainfly and steaks and poles were there--but no tent! The last time we used it was last summer at Luke's parents house. We have another tent, but it's smaller and I wasn't sure it would work for the 4 of us. The Hennum's saved the day! They let us borrow their tent (which is the same model as ours) along with their stove! Thanks again, Hennum's! On our drive to the campsite we figured out where our tent is......and has been for the last year--in Jake's trunk! 

The kids had an absolute blast! We got to the campsite around 5:30 on Friday evening and started setting up camp. Of course I forgot a few things (like matches for the fire), but the campground had some we could use, whew! We set up our tent and unpacked and then started the fire to make dinner. 

Dinner on Friday night!

After dinner we made smores and relaxed by the fire! It was such a nice night out we didn't even need our rain fly on--we slept under the bright moon!

Yummy-smores!

Relaxing by the fire with daddy!

Playing in the locker room!

Hanging out in the lockers!

Saturday we got up, made breakfast, relaxed and headed on a hike to the beach!

Hiking to the beach!

There was a man made beach with chlorinated water at the beach--it was perfect for us! We stayed in the shallow water, where the deepest part was 3 feet deep! The kids played in the sand, swam in the water, we had a picnic and played around for a few hours!

Building sand castles

Buried in the sand!

There was a really cool park next to the beach-so the kids played there for a bit after we swam. We were all pretty tired from not getting the best nights sleep in the tent, so we didn't last too long at the park. After the park we took a little drive so the kids could nap. They both took about a 30 minute snooze and then we headed back to the campsite.

Always looking for frogs!

His collection of frogs!

Checking up on his frogs

As we came back to the campsite it started to rain--we didn't have our rain fly on the tent, so Luke ran to put it on and Nora and I went to get some more firewood. There was no rain in the forecast for the weekend and it was hot and humid, so I wasn't prepared for rain at all--we didn't have any raincoats and only 1 umbrella. It was a warm rain, so it wasn't too bad--it didn't last TOO long and so it wasn't too bad after all!

Taking shelter during the rain

Hiding out under the tree during the rain

As you can tell, there was A LOT of frog catching that went on!

Hanging out at our campsite before dinner!

Sunday morning brought more fun--we ate breakfast, relaxed by the campsite and the kids looked for more frogs!

Nora feeding her frog icecream!

The kids had a great time together and we gave them a little freedom to go look for frogs on their own for a bit. They had so much fun and Bishop told me on Sunday morning that Nora is his best friend. It completely melted my heart! I love these two so much and I'm so happy they're happy together! Bishop is always looking out for Nora and taking care of her...he adores her and is so good to her (for the most part)! :)

"Best Friends"

While preparing to go camping is a lot of work we thoroughly enjoyed our time together and Luke and I both felt like we were able to relax a bit. We were never in a hurry to do anything and that is exactly what we needed! The kids had a blast and they're still talking about it and wanting to go back!