Camping in Watkins Glen State Park

The week before school started we took one last family outing, a 3-night camping trip to Watkins Glen State Park in upstate New York. We went with five families (The Ures, Mathuseks, Rahlstons, Vivakas, and our cousins the Hawkins) and we had such a great time in such a beautiful place. 

Bryn, her cousins Leah and Abby, and three of the Ure girls

Prepping food for the dutch ovens with my sister in law Tyra and my niece and nephew

Our campground was awesome! One perk was the swimming pool! Bryn had just gotten her stitches out and her plastic surgeon wouldn't allow her to swim (or even take baths!) yet, but we caved and let her play in the kiddie pool for a while as long as she kept her head out of the water. She was bummed that she couldn't do the diving boards, but it was still a fun afternoon.

 Camping with a 10 month old! Yikes!

To be honest, it was a bit rough camping with Tate at this age. All he wanted to do was crawl around, get dirty, and eat dirt and rocks. Then on the last day he got sick and had some breathing trouble, so we left early and ended up having to do an antibiotic and an albuterol breathing treatment a few times a day for two weeks. Poor guy!

 Chewing on rocks, happy as can be.

My shy, little Mya got a bit overwhelmed sometimes with all the cute, energetic kids in our group, so we would do little nature walks to give her the quiet time she needed. 

Bryn, on the other hand, was right in the middle of the action at all times. She had such a great time running around with so many of her friends.

 My brother in law Jake was teaching everyone how to long board. It was actually really fun!

Sometimes Mya pretends to be mad when she really is having a good time. This is totally a "fake-mad" face! 

 Right behind our campsites was the hike to Watkins Glen Falls (I'm totally guessing on the name of the hike. It was the main hike in Watkins Glen). This was one of the coolest hikes we've done as a family. Such a beautiful landscape!

 Bryn was feeling pretty special to be hiking buddies and matching-hair buddies with her cousin Abby.

 Such a fun camping trip! We're so grateful for the wonderful people we've become friends with in New Jersey and for the beautiful places we've been able to visit back east. 

*We spent the Sunday of this camping trip up in Palmyra, NY and I'll do a separate blog post on that.