Monday, May 28, 2012

Camping Trip

We spent the long weekend in Catoctin National Park in Maryland, about an hour north of here. It's right next to Camp David, but I don't think the Obama's were there this weekend. (They shut down the adjacent roads when the President is around) 
We went with our friends (the Hansens) that have two little boys, just older than Leo. The boys had so much fun playing together, and we had a great time watching them do silly things. Boys are so fun. They caught a frog in a bucket, played with sticks, and collected rocks in their pockets. They hiked and explored, and waded into the creek.

We stayed in small, rustic cabins that were built in 1936 by the WPA.  They had 4 cots, and that was about it. We did all our cooking outside on the campstove, over the fire, or in a dutch oven. We took our kayaks, and spent one day at the lake. We kayaked, swam in the lake, played in the sand on the beach, and had a picnic on the grass. It was a really fun day. The next day we took the boys fishing to a pond nearby, and taught them how to fish. (they liked the casting part, but were not crazy about the waiting part)  Our nightly campfires were the best.  Silly ghost stories, talking, and roasting HUGE marshmallows together was so much fun.

We headed home last night, and were just about to load everything in the car when a huge storm blew in, and rain started dumping from the sky. We quickly tried to get things back into the cabin so they wouldn't get soaked. There was loud thunder, and they boys were getting a little nervous, so we plopped them into our car and put on a movie. They happily watched "Finding Nemo" while we waited for the rain to die down a little, so we could load up our car.
We finally got everything in the car, said goodbye to the Hansens, and hit the road. (they were leaving the next morning) It rained the whole way home. We are so grateful for the nice weather we had all weekend!  We had a great time getting to know the Hansens better, and it was so nice for Leo to have two little friends to play with.  He had a marvelous time!