First Camping Trip of 2010

I am a bit behind in posting, but I did want to share some information on our first camping trip of the year, which was at the end of March.  We went back to Mark Twain Lake State Park here in Missouri.  The weather this year has just been fabulous, so we decided to go at the last minute.  We really love their camper cabins, and I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to camp, even though there was no running water or flush toilets.  As an aside, the pit toilets there were amazingly clean.

The girls were really excited, but I think we might have done better if we had kept the trip a surprise until the morning we left.  The girls were so excited and wanted to stay up late helping us pack.  Unfortunately this lead to some tired kids while we were camping.

Being so early in the season, it was very quiet at the campground.  We were the only residents in the camper cabins the night we were there.  Most of the tent sites were also empty.

We spent a lot of time hiking.  We did avoid the really long hiking trail we took last year, but found several other areas to explore.

Isabella was was the navigator for one of our hikes.

The girls improved their campfire skills, and their cooking skills.

Isabella was the breakfast chef.  I forgot to get a picture of her making the eggs and sausage, but I did get one of her enjoying her meal.

I was impressed that Madeline was able to identify the turkey vultures flying overhead.

The girls also spent a lot of time at the lake throwing sticks into the water and then throwing stones to try to direct and redirect them and speed up their approach to shore.  Hailey eventually did fall in, and let us know that it was really cold water.

They found lots of fossils, including this one.  They always love finding the fossils, and there are tons at this location!

Here are my tired campers.

We are looking forward to more camping trips this summer, including a few with friends!