Camping at Kohler-Andrae State Park

We just got back from a great adventure-CAMPING- We had a fantastic time. The boys love the beach so we went back to Kohler-Andrae state park and spent three days and two nights. When we got to our reserved site(we reserved it online) we found that it wasn't a very good spot. It was right on the road, no place for the kids to play and a busy intersection with lots of campers driving by. We decided to drive around and see if there were any empty spots. We found a perfect one and so we drove back to the office to see if we could switch. They said that site was taken but gave us two options-sites 93 or 94. Meanwhile there were a few other people looking at those spots and the first one back to claim it would get it. So the race began. Driving around a state park at 15 mph with one way roads was very exciting. The kids were all yelling for Jeff to drive faster. We took some short cuts(???) and made it back first. We ended up in a great spot, not many trees but lots of grass for the kids to run and play. We set up camp and then headed for the beach. The kids played and swam and we flew our kite. We went back to camp for hot dogs, chips and watermelon. We then went on a little walk along the Black River Marsh boardwalk. We watched the sunset and it was beautiful. The kids were so excited at the prospect of a huge marsh. They searched for frogs, turtles, fish and raccoons. They were so happy despite the fact that they found nothing that moved. We came back to camp and had smores and campfire stories. I was fortunate enough to hear Jeff's famous camp story that he apparently tells the boys at every father and sons camp out. It was a very exciting story about four boys who fall upon some gold treasure. The boys were so entranced!! It was just one of those unforgettable moments. Everyone slept well, except Spencer! This was his very first camp out--After nursing him for an hour in my sleeping bag I finally climbed in his port-a-crib and got him to sleep-then I got out and went to my own bed. I am happy to announce that was his last nursing. I was so tired in the middle of the night and cranky I finally said "this is it--no more!" And so far so good. This morning, it was like he had completely forgotten that I have milk. YIPPEE!! Also, big news, Spencer stopped sucking his thumb. He has been our only baby that has sucked this thumb. But for some unknown reason, he doesn't even remember how to comfort himself with his thumb. I wonder what happened? It's like overnight he grew up. He is walking, even running now. He turns one next week and so anxious to be a big boy with the rest of them. The next evening I went to prepare our dutch oven meal--steak, potatoes, carrots, onions etc. I had been looking forward to using my dutch oven again and had done a lot of preparations so that this meal would be fabulous. When I went to the cooler to get out the food, I found that our steak was gone!! I searched everywhere. It was packed in the bottom of the cooler under lots of other stuff. I had seen it there that very morning--because I wanted to check and make sure that it was thawed for dinner. Well, now it had disappeared. I thought I was going crazy. Jeff thought maybe it was still at home. I couldn't imagine what had happened. So we enjoyed a not so tasty vegetable dish. The rest of our camp out I kept wondering if it was stolen or if I was just crazy. When we got home I searched the house, every drawer, cupboard and garbage can. You know how sometimes when you have tons of things on your mind and in your hands and you mix up where things are supposed to go, and you end up putting your hairbrush in the refrigerator? I thought maybe that was what happened. But after a long search I found nothing-no steak. It was stolen. Who steals steak camping? Isn't it safe anymore to leave your cooler at your campsite? Do you have to leave everything in your car? You might be wondering if it was a bear or some other animal-but the cooler was closed-everything was in its right place. I've never heard of a bear that puts your food back nicely and closes the cooler. I have concluded that it must have been a real professional campground thief. Yes, professional because they probably only take one item from each cooler so that the mother is forced to think that she just forgot the item at home. If they took multiple items it would be too obvious and the incident would be reported. As you can tell, I was really bugged. Moving on--we went on a beautiful hike/walk along the sand dunes and beach. There was poison ivy everywhere.

Luckily no one fell into it. We did however have lots of mosquito's and flies. We really did have a wonderful, memorable camp out as you can see from the fun pictures.