Family Vacation 2011...Camping

For four days and three nights my family went camping and we were accidentally/on purpose cut off from the outside world, no cell phone reception. It was a wonderful experience for us that we will always remember. We camped at Laurel Hill State Park in Pennsylvania and loved it!

Here was our kitchen and home for the duration of the stay.

This was our kitchen and living room combined.

Our campsite was right on one of the many creeks. It was very smoothing to hear rushing water all day and night.

Another picture of the creek. Notice the hammock on the left side, another spot for us to relax.

This was the view from our living room.

This was Ben's spot when we were home, tending the fire. It rained at least once everyday so building fire with damp logs did get interesting. As you can see from the picture Ben would "cook" the logs before burning them.

Even in the middle of the woods Amelia is playing with her baby.

Here Abrielle is jumping on the various rocks in our yard.

It never did get the warm but the girls still played in the creek. This time they were giving the baby a bath and watching it float down the creek. We had lots of wet clothes and when we started to run out of dry clothes I put the wet ones on a long poles and "cooked" them over the fire.

Amelia liked playing with the sand.

Amelia loved to scoop up dirt and bring it to us. She would ask us what type of ice cream we wanted or if we wanted any coffee. Then she would bring us a scoop of dirt.

This is what I get when I asked her to smile.

I'm happy I get to play in dirt!

Mom do I have anything on my face?

Dad do you want a bite of my marsh mellow?

I want a bite but it keeps moving, maybe this way will work.

Or maybe this way.

We went on three different hikes and each day Amelia would fall asleep while on Ben's back. The first hike was an easy taking us to Jones Mill Run Dam.

Ben and Abrielle rounding the bend to the Dam.

This is the calm lake leading up to the Dam.

On top of the Dam.

It was gorgeous.

This is the stream that is after the Dam. I forgot my camera for the second hike we took but we had to cross that row of rocks in the picture.

The pictures that follow are from our third hiking adventure. It was labeled difficult but it wasn't that bad. The only thing that would have made it difficult would have been the drop off on the side of the trail. On this hike we took along a hiking camp stove and roasted hot dogs and marsh mellows over it for lunch.

Abrielle leading the way.

This picture is of the forest floor covered in ferns. On our second hike, the one I forgot the camera for, we had to climb a huge hill and then when we came down it the forest was gorgeous with all the ferns on the floor of the forest. On that hike we also had to cross the river on rocks and go over the same river 3 or 4 times again on bridges with no sides. Abrielle was a little nervous but did a great job.