Camping Vacation- Day One

After James' graduation last Saturday (I'll save that for another post since I didn't take any pictures on my camera and will have to wait for those), we packed up and headed on a week-long camping trip with James' parents. This year has been very busy, especially for James, and it was wonderful to have a week to relax and be removed from a lot of the responsibilities of everyday life and enjoy just spending time with family.

Saturday evening, after graduation, Jesse got to go to the campground (Indiana Dunes State Park) "by himself" with Grandmama and Grandpa.  We stayed here and enjoyed packing in peace and sleeping in (well, only if you count 6:20 as sleeping in...it's kinda frustrating when you can't sleep in when the rare opportunity arises, but oh well).  On Sunday morning we took our time eating breakfast and packing up the rest of our stuff, made a quick Wal-Mart trip and drove over to Indiana to camp for one night at the state park.

Jesse is a natural camper and loves anything outdoorsy it seems.  He had endless fun playing with his sand toys at the campground's playground and at our campsite.  He especially enjoyed "watering" all the grass at the campsite.

 

We hiked to the top of Mt. Tom, the tallest sand dune in Indiana, after Jesse's nap and got some nice views of Lake Michigan. Jesse seemed to really enjoy riding in the backpack on this vacation, unlike the last time we put him in it.

 

 

 

Jesse loved the playground so much, so we walked there again after dinner.

 

He played in the sand a little while, but the gnats were pretty bad and seemed to be particularly attracted to Jesse's face, so he couldn't take it for very long. I think he is trying to get one off of his ear in this picture. Poor guy.

 

After a day full of playing, it was time for a bath.  Jesse thought it was pretty cool to take a bath in this little tub.  Once we got up into Michigan it was too cool for outdoor baths, so this was the only one he got.

After bathtime, we put Jesse down for the night in his pack and play inside the camper and we enjoyed sitting around the campfire for a bit.  It took him a while to get to sleep, being in a new environment and with lots of new distractions, but once he fell asleep we transferred him to a bed and he slept great the rest of the night.