Last Camping Trip of the Season

We wanted one more camping experience for the season (late September), so load up all the camping gear, fill the coolers, gather all the sleeping bags (and a couple extra kids) and head for the state park...


Fire is fascinating, so is roasting your own dinner...

OK, so camping is a LOT of work!  For just one night - to load up all that stuff - to set up a tent that will need to be taken down the next morning - to get a half decent sleep fighting off the pesky raccoons... why do we do it?

...I don't know - there's something unexplainable about it.  To witness our children bond with creation- UP CLOSE.  To take the time to discover how really small and vulnerable we are and how BIG the GOD of CREATION really is.  To smell the campfire and enjoy its warmth.  To imagine life without modern technology and to understand a bit of the lives of those who have gone before us...

...and to make a little boy very happy!

The next day we went apple picking.  No scanty supply at this orchard- the trees were truly burdened with ripe fruit.  (I wish my fruit-bearing was that plentiful.)

Hmmm... which kind makes the best pie?

 

 And, of course, 2 girlies can't forget the take the dolly for a stroll...

Nothing quite so juicy and delightful as a bite of sun-ripened fruit...

  "I'm helping DADDY!"  This little fellow thinks his daddy is the strongest man in the 'whole wide wold' and wants to be JUST like him when he grows big and strong.

     

 Family shot of Phil & Rebecca's family, overlooking the orchard...

Our family shot, minus our baby (thank-you, Grandma, for again watching Hannah)...

"Let's try a pyramid!"

...and the tumble afterward...