Return to Vogel. Honestly.

My good friend Chip emailed me a few months ago and said, "Hey! My family loves camping! What do you say we have a family camp out.  You bring your family and I'll bring mine!"

Ok, honestly, that's not exactly what he said.  That's kinda what he said.  Exactly what he did say doesn't matter because from that email we planned our family camp out.  It was decided that we would return to Vogel State Park.  Our first time there was a father / daughter camp out a few years ago.

March 2009

The park has some great tent camping sites and I was glad to be going back.  The sites at Vogel are some of the best sites for tent camping.  They have plenty of space, the tent pads are away from the road and the driveway, and they are clean.

We set up camp in the rain Friday night and huddled under our new canopy.

Honestly, I was against buying the canopy.  This was Cari's idea and her purchase.  I was against the canopy the whole way. . . until Friday night. . . in the rain.

Chip and family arrived shortly after the rain stopped and set up camp next door.  Dinner in our camp was hobos.  Ground beef with mixed vegetables wrapped in tin foil and tossed onto the fire.  This is an easy camp meal that tastes great.

Saturday morning Chip and I force marched our families on a mile long hike around the lake.  Excitement from my kids seemed low, but we made it down to the waterfall and back without being attacked by a goose, so I felt like it was a success.

We snapped this shot after she realized spiders were in there with her.

Nap time. . . for the mom's and the baby. . . followed our excursion.  This left Chip and I in charge of the rest of the kids.  The time with us in charge went something like this, "Go play."  It was during this time that we almost let a squirrel run off with a chunk of banana bread.

Dinner Saturday night - smoked sausage.  I don't eat this good when I backpack, so we took advantage of car camping with a big cooler.  Cari hooked us up!

We were so excited about Chip's cherry pie we didn't take the photo until after dishing it out.

We spent a good chunk of time at the playground next to the creek each afternoon.  All the kids were having fun in the water, but the baby had the best time.  She fell in "accidentally" fully dressed.  She spent the rest of the time trying to get wetter.

The rope didn't break under my weight.  And neither did the limb!

Mud bath!

Twisty slide?

Ghost stories around the camp fire got cut short when people started telling the story about the raging lunatic that wanders the woods each night looking for a new victim.  Then when talk turned to Black Bears being in the  park it was decided that we should play the ABC "I'm going on a camping trip. . ." game.  L= Lama.  Honestly, I still remember them all. . . go ahead, try me.

  Our camp volunteer staff.  Mr Attitude and Miss Party

Our weekend turned out fantastic.  We had great weather, great food, great company, and great fun.  Honestly, I don't know that it could have been much better.