Ca...ca...ca...ca...camping!

This weekend, we camped at:

This was a MUCH NEEDED escape from the reality of our stinky, wet basement and a good opportunity to get in some family active time. See, I have decided that my family will not be the type to lay around, watching tv and eating all weekend long. I've BTDT with my ex and I hated it. Ordering pizza and watching a movie on Friday nights is one thing but to extend it to an entire weekend and then into the week and eventually into the evening routine was just not working for me. (That, folks, is number 693 of why we aren't together anymore...)

Lucky for me, Nick loves likes tolerates tent camping and tolerates likes loves me enough to go along with my plans. This weekend was our second tent camping trip of the Summer. The first was to Salt Fork State Park in Ohio, over Memorial Day weekend (read: the coldest Memorial Day weekend EVER - 37° overnight!).

I was bound and determined to get a run in at the park, despite the fact that we would be sleeping on the ground (hello, back soreness!) and were with another family. I made a plan. On Saturday morning, I would put on my running clothes and as soon as there was a break in the action, it would be RUN TIME. Fortunately, after breakfast, everyone wanted to go fishing, so I rode with them to the stream, decked in my running gear. They set up their fishing gear and I headed off.

I decided to run from the stream to the campsite and back and whatever that mileage ended up being would be my run for the weekend. I hadn't paid all that much attention to the road as we were driving to the stream and wasn't exactly prepared for the crazy straight up the hill beginning to my run. One thing is for sure though - my legs were completely warmed up by the end of that hill. The rest of the journey was rolling hills but definitely felt like more uphill than downhill.

Our campsite

The beautiful view I had while running

As I approached the stream, coming down that glorious hill that had, at the beginning, been the crazy hill, I heard the kids cheering me on. It was like I was running my own race. I sprinted toward the finish and glanced at my watch. It read 6.23 miles. Oh snap! I cannot end on an uneven number like that... I waved to the kids and continued running but it was up another stinkin' hill. I went part of the way up and then realized that exact mileage wasn't that important, so I turned around and headed back. By this point, they were loading up the van. I stopped my watch and then looked down. 6.66 miles. Seriously?! Ok, uneven mileage I can handle but triple 6's WERE NOT happening. I turned my Garmin back on and ran across the small parking lot and back for a 6.7 mile finish.

Everyone wanted to hike immediately so we set out on the Pumphouse Trail.

What a view! 

After the hike, we went to the beach area, where there was a cool playground.

And then to a picnic area where it appeared that a new television show pilot could have been taking place. We called it "Corrupting the Amish" because our girls were teaching their new friends with the pretty dresses how to do splits, while the boys showed them how to put sand all over the slide. Great fun! *wink* 

After a quick lunch, we decided that another hike was in order. This time, we went to the Laurel Hill Creek Trail.

On Sunday morning, we packed up our campsite and decided to do one more hike before heading home. There was a trail listed in the guide as "Difficult" but since our kids were such experienced hikers by this point <heh>, we decided to go for it.

Em holding a baby toad that she spotted along the trail.

See that dip on the left side of the picture. It was like that for the majority of the trail. We just made sure to hold hands with the kids during that time, and they did just fine.

What a wonderful weekend! And we made it home just in time to get to a first birthday party and replace all the calories we burned all weekend long....