Camping. No, seriously. I went camping.

My idea of roughing it is a hotel without a bellman, so I'm not entirely sure what possessed me to take Declan camping this weekend, but away we went. I had never been camping before, and neither had he. There was a bunch of other families going so I figured it was a good way to start out- surrounded by people who knew what they were doing.

We went to Lake Ouchita state park in the Ouchita national forest, about an hour and a half away from home.

We went boating and swimming in the lake. Declan appreciated how muddy the swim beach was.

Nellie came with us and was a camping champ- letting the kids "take care" of her, and guarding the campsite from critters. She stayed up all night keeping an eye out! Phoebe stayed home with Shane as I don't 100% trust her off the leash yet, and I thought it might be too much for me to handle on my first time out in the Great Beyond. She would have been all over that muddy lake though. Next time Phoebe!

Declan got to go for his first bike trailer ride- Arno took him along when he took Amelie for a spin around the campgrounds.

Lonnnnnng after the ride was over, Declan stayed in the trailer, waiting and hoping that Arno would come back.

As night fell, the kids all gathered in our tent to tell each other ghost stories.

Or maybe they were just watching the iPad.