Mueller State Park

We went camping in early June. It was the weekend after my mom and sister left and before Brian's parents arrived. I wasn't looking forward to it so much, but Brian reminded me how much fun the kids (him included) would have and the memories we were making as a family. I went and had a good time. The campground was really pretty. There were lots of trees and our campsite was very secluded. Brian picked it specifically so we wouldn't be around motorhomes and generators. That was good. The only problem was we had to walk all of our stuff from the car to the campsite. We don't pack light. We use all the available space in the car. If we had a roof rack we'd still use all that space. Anyway, we carted our belongings to our spot and set up camp.

Part of setting up camp included moving all of our food, utensils, stove, and ice chest into the bear box. We were camping in BEAR COUNTRY!!! Well as I stated above, we tend to over pack. So we (by we I mostly mean Brian) had to walk back and forth to the car with the ice chest, food, utensils, etc.

Anyway, after we got settled in for the evening we fixed dinner and took Baxter for a walk. We got to the outdoor ampitheatre just as they were starting a slideshow on the animals we might see around the campground, so we settled in for a few minutes. And it got cold!

So we went back to our home sweet home and started up the fire. Well, we tried to set up the campfire. Apparently our wood was too wet and we had a heck of a time. We spent more time trying to get the fire going than we did warming up by it. I finally said forget it and climbed into my sleeping bag where I was hoping to warm up.

The next day we wanted to go for a hike, but dogs weren't allowed on the trails and we had Baxter with us. I wasn't comfortable leaving him at the campiste alone so we took some short walks around the campground throughout the day, but mostly hung out aroudn the campsite. We played a lot of Yahtzee, read, and I listened to music. We also started the campfire early in the day so that it would be toasty warm before it got dark.

We also enjoyed just hanging out relaxing. The kids especially loved having soda. A special treat.

Saturday night was slightly warmer. At least the wood had dried out enough to make a fire. Luckily this campground had full bathrooms so Brittany and I scrounged up 4.00 in quarters and treated ourselves to a hot shower. The only problem was that it started to rain overnight. We woke up and everything was damp, wet and once again cold. We ate a quick breakfast, packed up and headed home. A couple weeks later I bought myself a camp heater so at least when we go camping next week I can warm up a little in my tent!! :)