ROBBERS CAVE STATE PARK

A beautiful sight to wake up to in the morning.

After fishing for two days...no fish caught, after turtle hunting for two days....no turtles caught.

All ready for the hay ride-what a ride it was!

This was out nightly visitor, I thought he was pretty quite, I think Ron had other opinions.

I had a very interesting outing to the local Alco store when I discovered I had forgotten all our swimsuits. Lets just say everyone had a suit....might not have been too pretty but for the most part everyone was covered.

We all enjoyed swimming in the lake after we managed to find some swimming gear. Brayden loved jumping off the raft.

Brayden found this lizard on our hike and amazingly he held it the entire time. This was a very rocky climb-I was quite shocked he didn't lose it while trying to climb the rocks.

My great kids plus one little baby lizard.

We made it all the way to the top with all three kids. A little different from the days when we used to come climbing at this area just the two of us.

Climbing down into one of the crevasses at the robber's cave area.

The was patches, just just saddled up the horse and handed him over-it was a lot of fun-although I could have used a pair of boots walking in that field.

This is Silver, Becca is convinced Ron can build a stable in our backyard and she and Brayden are going to take care of her pony...."You won't have to do anything mommy" was her comment to me. You should have seen her face when she got the pony to walk on her own.

Andrea was all grins and no fear.

The was our spot, wonderful/quiet and right on the water-great for the canoe and fishing.

These are the rest of the pics....too many-I know!

http://picasaweb.google.com/RB.Haveman/ROBBERSCAVESTATEPARKLaborDayVacation##

We decided to finally head out of town this holiday weekend. With all the rain we have been having we were a little tentative about planning a camping trip but we decided last minute to head out. Turned out to be a wonderful weekend and even with little planning and a few forgotten items the trip was still a lot of fun. We camped at Robber's State park, a park that holds some memories as this is the area were Ron worked on his Thesis while at TU. The payphone was still there but the little cafe with pancakes as big or bigger than your plate was no longer open. We arrived Sat afternoon and after setting up camp enjoyed a canoe ride. Brayden was very much into taking the canoe out and looking for turtles and fishing, he is getting so big that he actually helps paddle-he does paddle backward at times, but.... There was a nature center, mini-golf and even a pool. Sat night we enjoyed an evening hay ride-complete with hay and a double trailer for all the people. It was a long ride but fun/fast-at one point I think a branch about cleared out one whole side of the trailer. The kids did well in the tent-Andrea was a little crazy but the other two were so tired they didn't really want to deal with her silliness. We had a little visitor at night-a raccoon, who made out pretty well under our picnic table. Sunday Ron enjoyed a 60 mile bike ride around the area while the kids and I hung out. We swam , Brayden loved jumping off the raft-I even made it in, too hot and sticky to sit and watch. There were some stables that were open and the kids loved riding, we ended up taking them twice, getting the same horse and pony each time. Becca has a whole plan on getting a pony at our house. We also explored the cave area-Brayden was on the hunt for money seeing as we said this was were the robber's hid out with their money. All in all in was a wonderful time, lots of work but I actually was able to read an entire book. It was a great place to stay for a couple days, we might have to go back in the fall to enjoy the fall colors and some more pony rides.