Camping: Adventures Abroad

As I mentioned before, we didn't spend all of our time at the campground.  In fact, we spent a considerable amount of time out and about on adventures.  Again, these are not in order.  I tried, but I had to think to long about the order in which our adventures happened and finally gave up...

One of my favorite adventures was our trip to Ocqueoc Falls.  I've wanted to go for a while (I love waterfalls), but we never seemed to have time even though we were so close so often.  The falls lived up to my expectations.  The trails were great, it was very kid friendly, and everyone had a blast!

The kids started by wading in a little rocked off area that had almost no current.

It wasn't long before the group wanted to move up the falls and the river.

Walking with Daddy.

The group walked all the way to the bridge.  I didn't get in the water.  I forgot to change into my water shoes, and it was slippery enough that I didn't feel confident trying it with my bad ankle.  So I walked the trails along the river and climbed to the bridge to take a group picture.

The whole gang.

On the way back, a few members of our group decided to jump off the falls.

Clearly, they thought it was great fun!  Something to remember to try with the twins when they are a little older...

Goofing off with Daddy on the rocks before we left.

Lucas' hometown was having their annual Nautical Festival while we were there, so we got to take part in the festival for a few of our adventures.  One such adventure was our trip to the Calcite Limestone Quarry to see their big trucks.  And when I say "big," I mean BIG.  It was so awesome.

The kids (and one dad) in the scoop. 

Kids and their parents were invited to see them up close, climb up, and even sit in the driver's seat.

Another shot to try to give you an idea of the gigantic size.

Driving the front loader.

I didn't get a picture of the giant dump truck, but it looked like a Tonka truck only 100 times larger!  I overheard one of the guys say that because he works there and works with these trucks every day it seems so ordinary, so it was fun for him to see the excitement of the kids (and parents) and be reminded that what he does is really cool.

In the dump truck - one of the drivers was answering all of Allie's questions.

They also had some members of the air force there along with one of their vehicles and all kinds of the gear and weapons they use.  Kids got to sit in the vehicle and have a very hands on experience with their gear.  They answered all kinds of questions (like what was their favorite snack), talked a lot about what their day-to-day might look like, and let the kids try on their helmets and vests.

Showing Allie how to look through the scope.

Another short adventure was a trip to the famous Plath's to pick up some bacon.  The kids were completely enamored with the hot dog outside and begged for their pictures to be taken with it.  Our friend said he was surprised we hadn't been taking pictures annually to keep track of the kids growth with the hot dog.  Perhaps this is the beginning of a new tradition...

Group picture!

We did have one more awesome adventure, but that deserves all to itself...