Camping- Devil's Lake!!

On Wednesday, July 6th- July 7th we decided to take a last minute camping trip to Devil's Lake with one of Jason's best friends, Jake Kotrba and his girlfriend, Crystal!  It was a lot of fun!

We did a lot of hiking and swimming and camping stuff again!  The girls did a great job!  And Haven did a good job with going on the potty and taking hiking naps, lol!

This was Jason and my's 3rd time camping at Devil's Lake.  The 1st time was when it was just us (pre- kids).  During that time he tricked me into climbing up the stairway of death and I was pretty much scarred for life.  (Also, I ended up getting a bad fever and strep while camping, lol).  The 2nd time was 2 years ago when Venily was 19 months old and I was 21.5 weeks pregnant with Haven at the time.  (see here!)  During that trip, Jason tricked me up the stairway of death AGAIN (with my sister) and then ditched us at the top and we were lost, exhausted, and thirsty for hours and hours and then froze all night long in our tent. Haha- I'm not still bitter about it, I swear...

This 3rd time, I flat out told Jason on several occasions that there was no way he was making me go up those stairs again, lol.  We ended up hiking up one of the back ways (All uphill of course, with the stroller) and then taking the path back down that I took w/ my sister last time (some parts were scary with cliffs on the side that go straight down and lots of stairs, but nowhere near as scary as the stairway straight up!)!!!

The girls both fell asleep great in the camper together!  Jason set them up with a movie on our laptop and they were both out within like 15 minutes.  And Jason and I actually got to sleep in the same bed!

The next morning we hiked along the lakeside where it is all rocky.  Again, we took the stroller through some really rough terrain (some of which I couldn't believe we got through, lol!).  All us girls picnicked on some flat rocks we found while the boys rock climbed.  After waiting an hour for them to get back, we decided to head back ourselves.  I couldn't count how many comments I got about me pushing that stroller by myself all the way back.  I had guys offering to help me left and right and let's just say I'm happy that Haven is still with us here today, lol!!  My wrists are still killing me from holding up the back of the jogging stroller to navigate back through!

Lots of fun!!  And I'm glad that the girls are such good little campers!!! :)

Devil's Lake!

Here's some pics from our trip:


















Well, Venily had her first camping trip this weekend! Overall it was really fun! WAY TOO COLD for me, but still fun!

We got there, set up our tent and headed right out on an over 4 hour long hike! The last time we went to Devil's Lake (like 5-6 years ago) Jason made me go on these HORRIBLE stairs (I am scared to death of stairs) that are like 1 mile long and lead all the way up to the top of a huge mountain. Well.... somehow Mike and Jason tricked me into going up these stairs AGAIN!! Ahh! I was hyperventilating the whole way! AND Jason had Venily strapped to him, which made me even more nervous! We FINALLY got to the top and then the guys wanted to go rockclimbing so me, Venily, and my sister were on our own. There was NO WAY on earth we'd be able to go back down those stairs...EVER, let alone go down with Venily so we had to find our own way and we kept going for a couple of miles, realize we were not going the right way, and then backtracking! Venily wanted me to carry her most of the time, so that in itself was hard! Venily is about 24lbs and being 21.5 weeks pregnant hiking on rough terrain was EXHAUSTING!! haha! My legs and back are still killing me today! But I enjoyed it- I feel accomplished!! :) Though I am sure my blood pressure was pretty high while climbing those stairs!! I hope I don't have nightmares about them tonight!!

After that we got back to our tent, made some dinner on the fire, and went to sleep. It got down to 30 degrees F that night! Sooooo cold! Venily and I shared a sleeping bag and had a comforter wrapped around that so it wasn't too bad, but still too cold for my liking! We left the next day.

I think it was a nice "trial run" for camping. I'd like to go some more this summer when it's a lot warmer and we can go swimming and not freeze to death!



My next doctor's appointment is tomorrow!! I will update again when I get back!