Monday, October 20, 2014

Family Camping in Prince William Forest

The four of us went camping!!!  And, we had a wonderful time!!!  There was a lot to coordinate between work and school schedules, soccer games, all of the gear, campsite location, and nightfall.  We had our sights set on a campground near Fredericksburg, which would have been great last weekend since we had the long weekend to work with.  We would have just left Saturday morning and avoided the bad Friday traffic.  This weekend, however, we needed to leave Friday afternoon, so heading as far as Fredericksburg just wouldn't have worked with Josh getting home from work, loading the car, and setting up camp before dark.  We solved all of those problems by camping at Prince William Forest, which is practically in our backyard!  We had flexibility with time, and we were able to take both cars since it was so close, so we could bring pretty much anything.  
That being said, we still had to fight the dark and wet wood as we set up camp Friday night.  I was SO proud of myself since I set up almost the whole 10-person tent while Josh and the boys went to get firewood.  Josh worked so hard on the fire, and he finally got a pile of wet wood to burn!  Hooray!  After some dinner, we laid Graham down, and then Jackson got a little extra time to stay up which included s'mores :)
Love the face!
In the daylight, I showed off the tent I pitched :)  We LOVE it!  It was brand-new for this trip, and it has so much room!  Each of the boys has a separate "room," and Josh and I got a touch of privacy.  Last time we camped, we all were in a four person tent with a pack-n-play!
Playing around in the morning in new jammies.
Our pre-lunch activity was playing at one of our favorite playgrounds--The Bear Playground near the visitor center in the park.
Riding the bumblebee
That smile...
I like this one of the boys looking at each other
Such a climber!
We had SUCH a relaxing weekend, which we ALL needed!
Playing a little soccer
I think the light in this picture is so neat
Brothers :)
Tag!
Just relaxing!  Graham took a good little nap after lunch, and we played some Simon Says with Jackson, read a lot of books, and had a little quiet time while Jackson worked on building a small Lego set we brought with us.
After Graham woke up, we took a walk around the campground, and this was so much fun!  I loved seeing how other people set up their sites, and it was nice to see some new faces.
Collecting some more firewood on the way back to our site.
Pretty!
Of course, Graham thinks he would be an excellent helper with Lego building...
Little (ish) hands
Roasting hot dogs for Graham and Jackson's dinner
Josh and my places all set for our dinner of sausage, potato and pepper packets.  SOOO good!
Flat Stanley joined us on our camping weekend :)
Camping selfie!
Yesterday morning was a bit chillier, so we snuggled up under blankets and ready books by the fire!
Playing
A little more playing at The Bear Playground on our way out.
Steering
Posing with the big bear
And, then, Jackson posing with the big bear :)
Waiting for the leaves to fall down--this was a fun game!  We headed home shortly after this for lunch, naps, and soccer!  What a fun new family memory :)
Rewinding to before camping, Jackson has a Jog-a-thon at school!  It was on Friday right before we left.  It was a really nice day, and he has a great time!
Jackson is just on the left side of the middle running :)

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