Destination: Camping

Maria and Joshua chatting by the cooler!
Maria helping Joshua put on a hat...even if he doesn't really want it.
Aunt Emily and cousin Joshua on the teeter-totter.
Maria "helping" fold up the tarp.

Uncle Justin and cousin Joshua on the beach.
Grandma Saunders and Maria
Dunes
Larry, Jessica and Maria
Story Hour with Aunt Emily

Part of the washed away beachEmily with Joshua and Larry with Maria
More Dunes
The parking lot-well, what used to be the parking lot

Lake Michigan- look closely and you can see Chicago across the way.

Maria and Joshua had a ball playing with the cooler, especially the handles.

We took off after church on Sunday to head up to NW Indiana to the Indiana Dunes State Park...unfortunately we encountered a bit of flooding near Valparaiso, so after a couple of detours, we made it. Check out Jen's post with some local pictures and here is her link to pictures of the flooding in Munster area. I even heard about the Munster, Indiana flooding on The Weather Channel yesterday. To make things even crazier one of the parking lots of the State Park, the one by the bathhouse, collapsed due to high water from the Dunes Creek. We met up with Larry's parents, and sister, brother-in-law and nephew. Luckily the rain had mostly stopped. It did sprinkle a few showers on us during the night, but daytime was pretty nice and clear....albeit a bit cold, but we packed many layers for all.

Unfortunately we also dealt with our share of sickness. Maria and I were, and still are getting over a cold we got from a lovely sharing mom and child at the library story hour, gotta love that! To top off the cold, Maria and Larry both caught the flu bug that our nephew had been dealing with recently. So, it made for a long, interesting, messy night in the tent, and one episode on the ride home....needless to say the car seat cover hit the washer soon after we made it home. I thought she was pretty much done with it, but yesterday, the sicko bug made it appearance, ah, parenthood, poop and puke, who knew it would be so glamorous.

We enjoyed campfires, hikes, s'mores, pudgie pies(for all those ex-Girl Scouts who know what those are), and sand...it was everywhere, hence the dunes name! This was our first official family camping trip, and Maria did really well. We broke in our new tent, sleeping mats, and my sleeping bag, all courtesy of Larry's parents, two Christmas's ago.

We have plenty to praise God for; the rains let up and we were able to enjoy some great quality family time.