Mountain Magic

Summer time in our family means, for sure, one Aarsen camping week. We've been getting together for decades. Camping, pancakes over the fire, swimming, boating. We have gone to the same place for years and years.

Last year at the Aarsen Campout, as we sat around the fire, our most energetic niece and my husband came up with a new idea for next year's trip. A stay at Rock Lake, a park by Wilmore Wilderness my husband's home away from home. (He goes there frequently with his horses, packing into remote camps and staying for many nights and, according to him and whoever comes along with him 'living the dream'. Sure.)

Much enthusiasm was expressed, then came the logistics. Some people wanted to stay in cabins. Some people wanted to camp. Some people wanted to go fishing. Some people wanted to hike. A lot of people wanted to ride the horses my husband took along. Poor guy spent so much of his time giving people rides on the horses he didn't have much time to visit.

I digress. We ended up doing a combination. The owners of the cabins have a very large lodge that they rented to us instead of the cabins. It also meant my son and daughter-in-law and our adorable cutest-baby-ever grandson, could stay there as well as some of the more non-camping members of our family. One of those was me! Of course I stayed in the lodge so I could spend more time with said adorable grandson. Some sacrifices are worth it.

Our other grandsons were camped with Richard at the campsite. They seemed to enjoy it. The usual pancakes, bacon and eggs cooked over the campfire were served and enjoyed. then activities. Our one very enthusiastic niece and her sidekick (both teachers) organized events for each evening. A talent contest one night, family olympics the next. Fire starting, relay races, human untangling (you had to be there) I would have to say the highlight of the evening was the tug of war with a questionable rope that broke as soon as people pulled on it. Both teams landed ingloriously on their behinds as the ends of the rope flew into the air.

Despite that, all in all it was a great time and the best part, most family members were able to come for at least some of the trip.

I love having my family around me so that made my heart happy. I'm just sharing somepictures of the lodge we stayed at and the end result of a hike we did as an entire family.

The lookout point that gets visited each time we come here. Never gets old.