Norway Beach

Every summer for many years we have been going camping at Norway Beach with several other families.  It's a nice campground just 15 miles down the road from our house on Cass Lake.  The last few years it has been harder to get all our families there as our kids get to be teenagers and have jobs and sports and stuff.  The last two years us Oakeses have not set up tents and just slept at home since it is so close.   Our friends have given us much grief over this, they call us wimps and all sorts of names, but hey, a comfy bed and pillow beats a hard, lumpy, cold, sometimes wet sleep in a tent with mosquitos and skunks and all the other unpleasantries of tenting.  Not that we mind camping really but when it is so close to home its just too tempting.  So here's some shots of the weekend.

We did lots of just sitting around relaxing, visiting and laughing.

Lots of singing around the campfire....

Making popcorn for everyone on the camp stove....

Samuel got a BIG sliver in his finger, the doctor pulled it out!

An impromptu concert-

not sure why they had their instruments camping,

but we sure enjoyed the entertainment!

Landon had a break from Camp Oak Hills and came out for awhile.

Getting ready for our annual 12-mile bike ride......

........to DQ-- always the highlight of the weekend!

They love it when we all come!

And of course time at the beach- it's a very nice, sandy beach

and the water is shallow for a long ways out, perfect for little kids.

The first two days were very windy and chilly but the last day was perfect!

Except the water was very cold,

and only the bravest of souls went in.

The kids made a couple amazing sand castles.

Before we leave each year we take a photo of the kids. 

Some had already left before this shot.

Here's the group at one of our first campouts-

I think about 9 or 10 years ago!

And this was about 2005 or so....

Ten years,

that's a lot of camp fires and bike miles and s'mores and sand in the swimsuits!  

A lot of great memories for our kids to look back on

and that's what makes all the work of camping worthwhile.