Madelines first camping trip: A photo essay from our weekend

On a whim Saturday we decided to go camping!  So we loaded up the car headed to the store to get a few things we still needed like mantles and fuel for the lantern, among other things, then we were off!

We went to Peace River Campground right outside of Arcadia, FL.  It was a beautiful weekend, perfect for camping!

We camped in a tent in the wilderness camping so that it would be more private.   We forgot the tent poles though, so we had to run somewhere to pick up another tent because it was just too far to drive back home for them and we had already paid for the campsite so there was no way we were going home. 

putting up the tent, only to realize we didn't have the tent poles:

But it was a short trip to find a store and we were back in no time and putting the tent up!

Madeline had a blast!  She loved running around and playing in the dirt and helping collect twigs to help start the campfire.   We got her her very own camping chair too, which she climbed in immediatly upon me setting it up for her.

her very own chair:

helping collect twigs, trying to figure out why this one was stuck, lol:

I just had to take a pic of our 3 chairs sitting together around the fire :)

The campsite also had a dance hall, and a store for incase you forgot anything, and you could buy your firewood right there too.  They had a pony, a pig and a pygmy goat too, that were in a fence near the front of camp!  On Sunday morning before going home we stopped by to visit the animals so Maddie could see them.  But we didn't get to see the goat, he was hiding in his little hut or whatever you wanna call it.

the buiding that the fence was attached too, just because I liked the front of it:

and the squirrel who was on the tree next to where I was standing to get the last photo:

After getting the tent up and getting the campfire going it was time for dinner. 
We had hotdogs to cook over the fire and some corn on the cob which we just boiled in a pot over the camp stove.

 campfire:

eating dinner in the tent:  We had to because maddie didn't want to stay still while we were outside, and we needed her to eat.  Altho corn is her favorite, so once she saw that she was content till she had ate it all!

Then we played some more outside, Maddie went to bed and Hubby and I sat up for a bit longer enjoying the peace and quiet around the campfire.

Around 4 am I awoke to some noise outside of our tent, I woke hubby up as I listened I realized whatever was out there was trying to get into the tote that we had all of our food in.  A good thing it was a snap close top that didn't just pop right off when you lifted.  Upon further investigation and hubby getting up and shining a flashlight out the door to the tent he discovered it was two racoons.   His flashlight scared them away, and he then went out and restarted our fire to help keep them away the rest of the night.   A few hours later when I got up there were muddy paw prints all over the tote, all over the cooler, and all over the chair next to the tote and cooler.   They must have been out there trying to get into the stuff for quite awhile. 

The sun was just coming up we ran up got some more logs, and came back to make breakfast!

sunrise

hubby cooking breakfast on the camp stove:

after breakfast we broke down camp and went off to see some more of what was around us.

This is the view of the river from our campsite:

Maddie and I at the campsite:

Once we were off, we went to see the ruins that were within the campsite:

This is what they looked like 100yrs ago:

and now:

Finally it was time to go home, and we were all ready for a hot shower to clean all the sand and dirt off of us from our night of camping.