A Very Camp-y Birthday

Camping methods generally end up in two categories.

The first one involves bringing as little stuff as possible.  The stuff you do bring, you find microscopic and less useful versions of it--like freeze-dried pot roast and bivy sacks--and haul it on your back to some (hopefully) remote spot.  There, you'll have involuntary and realistic dreams of ice cream sundaes and being eaten by a large, toothy bear.

The second one, I like to refer to as Party Camping.  You go somewhere with nearly everything you think you might need or own.  You camp right where you park, along with all your new best friends who are camping right where they parked, which is right next to you.  You set up ten-man tents with a ridiculous amount of blankets and sleeping bags and air mattresses, even if there are only three of you in a tent.  You cook major meals three times a day over a fire and a propane stove and another fire (because it takes all that to get everything cooked) and you love every bite.  By the time you finish cooking and cleaning up one meal, it's time for the next one.  You are less worried about bears than you are about squirrels eating the corners off of all your bread if you leave the package out.

You can probably guess which category of camping we subscribed to for Noodle's birthday this year. We went to Torreya State Park, a long-time favorite of ours. In addition to the above activities, we also managed to fit in a few more:



We went hiking and geocaching.




We explored Weeping Ridge (a drippy waterfall-ish spot on our hike).

We brought lots of friends.

Ethan, Jeremy, Noodle, Kendra Miriam, Daniel,
Tabitha, Hopers, Tobianna (Not pictured are Me, Seth, Joey, Elaine, and Micah)

 

 

We played games in tents.

We rode around in the back of a truck.

We hung out.

We played on the playground.

We took advantage of adorable photo-ops.

We sat around the fire.  Noodle opened birthday presents.

And of course, what is a birthday without a birthday cake? (I love all those helpful faces in the background.)

I highly recommend Party Camping.  It's more fun than a bowl of freeze-dried pot roast!