After I married, my parents celebrated by purchasing a camper, a sailboat, and a new house.  I tried not to get offended.  They became regular outdoor people, camping on a regular basis with all of their friends.  They started off with an eight foot pop up camper but decided that they could use a little more room so they passed off the camper to us kids and purchased a bigger camper for themselves.  Todd and I inherited the 8 ft pop up last summer and decided that it was time to take the family camping.

We chose to go camping at Lake Norman State Park in Troutman, NC which is about 45 minutes from our house.  LNSP has a rustic campground with no electricity and shared water but a real nice bath house.  It was so quiet and peaceful there.  Of the 30 sites only 5 of them were filled with campers.  The state park has a lot of trails that skirt around Lake Norman and there were several beaches on which you could play.  Of course, they have a roped off swimming area with a concession stand and nice facilities but our dog was not allowed over there so we chose to swim at one of the beach areas.  We found a nice little cove and would spend our afternoons swimming as a family.  The only negative part was massive storms came through each day.  Our campsite never fully dried out. Plus we did not have a lantern so it was very crowded and dark inside our pop up.  Each child was confined to their sleeping area and told to stay put during the duration of the storm.  We tried to play games or read by the little bit of light that came through one of the plastic covered windows but all the other windows were screens and they had to be covered up to keep the rain out.

All in all, the kids had a blast which made the whole trip worth it.  Of all of our summers, this one has ranked to be about the best.  God has blessed us with good family time, a good summer job for Todd, a  plentiful garden to fill our pantry, and good friends to be with.  We feel very blessed indeed.