Annual Labor Day Camping

The kids look so forward to this camping trip every year.

Tim and I do until it's time to start packing and then we start to second think it.

After making it through all the grumbling of packing we made it to Melvern Lake and settle down and enjoyed camping.

If Kansas wasn't so damn hot, we could camp more often.

Until we decide we have had enough of this Kansas weather, I guess one camping trip a year will have to do.

Believe it or not, we all have our own tents.

Brooke even had a tent on her Christmas list last year.

Santa came through, the little red one on the left side of the big tent is hers. I think it was just for show, when it came time for bed she was always sleeping with someone else. That poor little tent was lonely.

Tim preparing food for one of the meals.

Come and get it!

We were blessed with a beautiful sunset one of the evenings.

Not only does this lake have a sand beach, but our camping site had a sand volleyball pit as well as a playground with swings and a slide. Cassidy still communicating with her friends back at home.
This is going to be one funny looking tan.

We had beautiful weather this year, upper 80's, lower 90's. Evenings cooled down enough we needed several blankets to sleep. In fact the first night Cassidy said she froze so she had someone sleep with her the second night.

We have camped in temperatures from 100 to 105, and not cooling down at bed time. I remember it being so hot we pulled our bedding out of the tents and slept on them on the ground. Even then we really never slept.

I also remember it raining so hard we have to move into the vehicle because the rain runoff was flowing through our tent. Oh, the memories.

Yearly ritual, S'mores! At least this year it was cool enough that the bonfire was more than just for S'mores, we needed warmth.
Even Heidi got to go on her first camping trip. She did wonderful.

Dylan, poor Dylan was feeling a bit under the weather, except for the last day, but I did manage to get a smile out of him. This is pretty much where he roosted the whole time.

Until next year.