Once the tents were set up, a fire was built and s'mores were made- the perfect start.
Saturday morning we had plans to tour a dairy farm and an alpaca farm. The adults, and the kids too, really enjoyed the farm tour.
At the dairy farm, Walk-Le Holsteins, we saw lots of cows.
Rudy: Does chocolate milk come from those brown cows?
The kids helped to prepare formula for the calves.
Those are some big pachas! The calves drank them down fast!
The older cows relaxing after being milked.
Sweet girls.
Besides milk, the farm also produces a lot of fertilizer. Enough said about what's in this picture. :)
A big tractor.
More calves- these were the males that were going to be sold to another farm.
The milking process- done entirely mechanically.
Our next stop was Painted Spring Alpaca Farm. Crazy kids striking a pose while they wait.
Such adorable alpacas.
This one was Pink (although the kids kept calling her Fluffy).
She was very friendly and easy going.
A feeding frenzy.
"Let's get a picture of the kids and an alpaca." The kids were certainly harder to wrangle than the alpaca for the picture.
Rudy at the barn door saying one last good-bye to the alpacas.
Back at the camp site, we had lunch and the kids just played. Some of the adults took naps while others sat and relaxed and talked.
Attempting to take a picture of Josh, who doesn't like pictures being taken.
Ashton's wagon was the biggest hit with the kids. It was nice that there weren't people in the sites next to us, so the kids had plenty of room to run and play and pull wagons up and down hills.
Before dinner, we were treated to a little music.
Charlotte whispered to me, "I like his guitar." When I asked which one she told me both.
Checking out the Leap Pad.
Corn on the cob over a fire- yum!
We made the kids cook their own dinner- and they thought it was the best thing!
Ashton demonstrating how much roll he can stuff in his mouth at one time.
After dinner the kids made dessert- fill an ice cream cone with various chips (chocolate, butterscotch, peanut butter), marshmallows, fruit, etc, then wrap it in foil and melt it in the fire for a few minutes.
The dessert was a success!
At the very end of the night we all sat around the campfire and told stories. Then everyone, kids and adults, headed to bed.
The next morning we discovered a visitor to our sites: a butterfly! Lily and Rudy both carried it around for a while. We didn't think the butterfly had long to be in this world because it was so calm and lethargic, but after a while it regained its strength and flew away.
As is our camping tradition, once the cars are packed, we take pictures.
Our family picture- can you tell someone didn't want to be in it?
Kim, Olav, Ashton and Lily.
Chris, Megan, Lily and Charlotte.
JoDee, Bob, Joshua, Emily and Ashlyn (an honorary family member).
Our Guatlings. Josh was determined not to smile.
But when you add a silly face in, you can't help but give a little smile.
All the kids. See the chaos reign as the pictures progress.
Group shots.
As usual, we all had a wonderful time; and for a change the weather cooperated. We have pretty much decided that our fall camping trip will have to be in September in tents, instead of cabins in October because the weather is much nicer!
