Last week we went on another family camping adventure with MB and Greg's family, this time to Balsam Woods Campground. It was the fourth year, and the SIXTH time that we all camped together, and it was lots of fun as always.
It looked like we were going to get rained on during the drive up, so we had to pack all our camping gear (including the kids' bikes) into the bed of the truck, below the roll-up cover. That was quite a chore!
The girls were allowed to fill their school backpacks with toys for the trip, but only what would fit in the packs. They managed to get quite a bit jammed in there!
Here is Kate's toy checklist...you can see that a lot of thought went into deciding what to bring.
Finally, we were ready to go. Molly had been anxiously pacing during the packing, waiting to see if she would get to come too. This campground was supposed to be "pet-friendly", so we planned to bring her. She was pretty happy when we told her it was time to get in the truck!
The campground was up north in Abbot, Maine, and it only took us about an hour to get there. It poured rain all the way, unfortunately.
We didn't bring our tent this time, renting a small one-room cabin instead. It turned out to be a great idea, since the rain fell on and off the whole time we were camping. Obviously, dealing with rain is much easier in a cabin than in a tent. We also brought our screen house (which has a rain fly) and set it up outside the cabin so we could cook with our gas stove and eat outside, regardless of weather.
MB and her family rented the adjoining cabin, so we were neighbors!
Mama gets sick of cooking all the time, so Mom was in charge of making the first night's dinner (always an adventure). She marinated chicken and dished up a mexican buffet.
The food was good, and the company was great. It was nice to be back together in the great outdoors (even though it should really be called "glamping", or glamour camping, when you have a cabin with beds, lights and outlets).
Molly had been looking forward to roaming free around the campground and sampling everyone's food, but she was required to be tied to a lead at all times at the campsite. Mama took her to a nearby field and threw the squirrel for her a bunch of times, so she was pretty content to just hang out when tied to the lead.
When the rain briefly cleared, the kids did some bike riding (a favorite camping activity)...
...but soon it started to pour again, so we took shelter in our cabin for the night. The kids loved having bunk beds...
...and Mom and Mama really enjoyed having a nice big dry space to spread all our stuff out in. Can you really even call this camping?
Our first full day was spent doing a lot of nothing, just hanging out and relaxing.
We also spent some time with maps, planning a future adventure...
...and competed in many championship-level corn hole games.
Swimming (between thunderstorms) and biking kept the kids busy for most of the day--they even formed a bike gang called the "X-Riders" with a few other kids they met at the campground.
MB cooked dinner the second night (hamburgers, hot dogs, and baked beans) and it was delicious also.
We realized that it happened to be Molly's 2nd birthday, so we celebrated with ice cream cones at the camp store.
The rain took a break long enough for us to enjoy a campfire (and make smoking torches) before we went to bed.
On our second full day, we decided to break out of the campground and try something different--a hike!
We considered hiking Borestone mountain, but dogs are not allowed there, so we chose Little Wilson Falls instead. There was a small waterfall at the trailhead, but we knew there would be a bigger waterfall at the end of the trail, so we started hiking.
It wasn't raining (thankfully), and the hike was just steep enough and just short enough (about 3.5 miles round trip) to get everyone suitably worn out but not too tired. Perfect!
When we reached the falls, they proved to be just as beautiful as promised. We posed near a very steep drop off, so we had to keep a sharp eye on Molly and the kids.
After a short rest and a few snacks, we headed back down the trail.
We all enjoy hiking, but Molly really loves it. She could hike all day long.
Kate and Cadence proved to be the fastest hikers of all. They led the way like two little mountain goats, and it was all we could do to keep up with them.
Back at the trailhead, it was time to go for a swim!
Molly even did some waterfall surfing, which looked like fun.
Back at the camp, we played some board games...
...rode bikes some more (one-handed!)...
...and jumped in the pool, over and over.
Mama cooked our final group dinner (pasta and sauce)--yum!
Wednesday morning was checkout day, so we broke camp and headed south. It happened to be the first real sunny day of the week, too (oh, well). We stopped at the famous Abbot Village Bakery (home of the skidder tire donut) for lunch before the drive home.
The bakery folks offered Molly a "puppy cup" in honor of her birthday--it was a small cup of vanilla soft-serve ice cream with a little dog biscuit on top. She LOVED it!
Another great camping trip with our favorite camping buddies!
