Most recent Camping adventure

So a few weeks ago Everette and I scored some serious firewood.
Which of course led to several fires in the backyard.
Which of course led us to sitting around and talking, about many things, and among them camping.
My parents (read: mom) just bought a pop-up camper--a life-long dream for my mom. My brother and sister-in-law took it on a two week trip this summer to South Dakota to see among other things (read: Freaking Laura Ingalls Wilder's house!!!), Mount Rushmore.
So we decided we were going to try it out. I was ready to head out of town, but Everette in his wisdom suggested we take it to Prophetstown State Park. So that we could learn how to set up/tear down the camper and try camping for the first time with our two-year old kid, and our three year-old dog in a low-risk environment. I hate it when he is right all the time.
So Friday afternoon I went to the park with my dad to learn how to set up the camper.
Around 5 PM Everette, Jonathan, the dog and I left the house with a truck full of crap, uhh gear and headed to the campsite.

All-in-all it was a fantastic experience, both Jonathan and the dog did pretty well.this is the king bed where Everette and I slept, not bad for camping.

We still have yet to take down the camper, that is what we'll do today (sunday), as my parents spent saturday night in the camper.Let's hurry up and eat!!

Our favorite part of camping is cooking camp food.
Firday night we made these delicious chicken/potato/onion/green beans/garlic/lemon butter pouches, which are exactly how they sound.
Marinated some chicken in some garlic and lemon juice...
cut some potatoes and onion and threw in some beans from our garden. Double wrapped them in aluminum foil and tossed them in a bed of hot coals for thirty minutes.
Then we roasted some corn over the fire (soaked the husks for an hour first).
For dessert, I made apple crisp and Everette baked it in the dutch oven.
Actually Everette did all the cooking... something about the primal urge to cook over an open fire.
I don't have any picture of that, because it was getting dark and we were trying to get the food ready so we could eat and keep Jonathan from running out in the road.

Jonathan did great in the camper and Everette and I had a great time chatting by the fire and eating delicious apple crisp.

Jonathan loved crawling around in the camper, we just planted his pack-n-play
on top of the queen mattress on the other side.

The next morning I made sausage gravy and Everette made biscuits in the dutch oven.

See the dutch oven in the upper right corner... that's where the biscuits are!
On the left-water for french press coffee--the most glorious reason to camp.
On the right-sausage gravy...mmmmm.....

My brother and his family came out and we went on a walk together.
We finished out the day with a bike ride.

We rode our bikes all the way back to the pond and the river, surviving the bombadier grasshoppers. Then we walked down a little path to an observation area near the river. The most amazing thing to me was the fact that all of this was quite literally in my backyard growing up. It was always there, I just never knew.

This was just too cute.

The view looking out over the river/creek--it was obviously low.