camping at stephen f. austin state park

a few weekends ago, we went camping with our home group. it was so much fun getting to know the group better - can't wait to do it again.


oh man, this was funny! the 2nd night, when all of the guys were there, someone had the brilliant idea to tie a chicken leg to a glow stick with a string - it was bait for the racoons. they threw it out into the grass area and waited for the little critters to come. and sure enough, they came. they snagged the chicken leg and off went the glow stick with it, bouncing through the shrubs. the guys did this all night - waiting in the dark for the racoons to come back.

there's something about a good campfire...

we had intended to take a short walk to go fishing, it ended up being a 2-3 hour walk! we were pretty tired afterwards - and not a fish to be caught. we ran into some others on the trail and they said the ranger told them that in the 3 years he'd been there, he'd only seen 2 fish caught there.

sigh.

some of the group getting picked up after the 'long hike' -

and there were horse shoes...

there was a dry stream behind our camping spot. the kids enjoyed exploring and getting lost.

some the kids of the group -

after some help, i figured out how to change the speeds on the camera - and got these cool shots of the kids playing with their glow sticks.

norah getting some snuggle time with our friend kara and matthew - who kept calling norah a 'nice girl' and petting her. so cute...

grace and laney are a few months apart - and grace had a lot of fun playing with her...

norah took a tumble... but was well enough to eat her s'more!
norah also picked up a nick name while we were there - the kids started calling her oreo - because she is cute and yummy. i heard them saying, noreo oreo...

daddy teaching grace the art of roasting a marshmallow.

i realized after posting all of these pictures, that i don't have a good one of jayden camping! he was gone most of the time, exploring and making new friends. even on the hike, he took off with one of the guys and they went way ahead of us - we didn't see them again until we got back to camp. but he was there! and he had a great time - he is a good age to take camping. such a help and eager to explore.