Camping Trip for my 36th birthday!

We went camping last weekend with my brother Paul and his family.  We went to Devil's Lake in WI.  It is a beautiful state park and has gorgeous hiking.  The weather was great for hiking but chilly for sleeping and swimming!  We had a great time and the kids had fun hanging out with their cousins. 
We had a visitor from a raccoon the first night we were there.  It wasn't even dark when it came out.  The first two nights were pretty quiet since it was during the middle of the week.  I guess the little guy was hungry and he thought we were perfect targets.  The older boys threw rocks at it and then Caleb used his sling-shot to hit it.  The thing was very persistent!  We did finally scare it away and made sure we put all of our food away.  He came back the second night but we didn't notice him the 3rd night.  I guess there were enough other people by then that he gave up on us!
The first night sleeping was very cold.  It got down to 39 degrees and it rained the whole night.  The kids actually did pretty well.  I had them in lots of layers.  They did wake up a few times when their blankets came off but went back to sleep once they were covered again.  I had been worried that Elise would be up at the crack of dawn, once the sun came up, but she actually did really well and made it past 7:00 each morning.

Loaded down on our way to Devil's Lake.  The boys were so excited to be going on vacation.

Elise and me were van buddies. 

We took the ferry across the river.  The kids had a fun time riding on it.

No camping trip is complete without s'mores.

S'Mores.  Yum!

Hiking at Devil's Lake.  The kids did great going up the steep rocks.

Too cold for swimming :)

Amy, Paul, Jenny, Dan

The Larson clan

We celebrated my birthday on the beach.  The weather did actually warm up enough for the kids to go in the water.  Dan cooked a peach cobbler in his dutch over for dinner.  It was delicious!!

We hiked up to Balanced Rock and Devil's Doorway.  There was a wedding at the park that day.

The kids were all troopers going hiking.  It definitely helped having all the cousins to help motivate them. 

Such a beautiful view of the lake.

Dan, Paul, Levi, Nathan, Noah, Isaac, Caleb, Seth

Balanced Rock

This was a tight squeeze.  Dan barely made it through with Elise!!

Gorgeous!!

Devil's Doorway - Some people actually climbed up on the rocks.  We decided to just stand in front of it!

Levi was so sweet on the hike.  He would hold my hand and tell me he wanted to help me because the rocks were slippery!