
I grew up in a family that did a lot of camping. Starting at age 3 we use to back pack in camp and hike back out. My dad was in the Forest Service so it was in his blood and in mine.
Chris and I have always enjoyed the outdoors and talked a lot about taking our kids camping before we even had any. But, sometimes even the best ideas don't come to fruition as fast as you thought they would
While in NYC I went camping several times and I've also participated as a girls camp leader.
Chris on the other hand is not a big fan of the actual sleeping in a tent part. He'd like to do "camping" activities and then go to a nice hotel.
He has however been a trooper and taken the boys to the Father/Sons camp out sponsored by our church.
So when I told Chris that I wanted to take the boys to Luray Caverns he suggested making a camping trip out of it. I was very excited about this because of course I love to camp and this would be our first camping trip as a family.
I fretted about the weather since we were having a really nice storm here at home but the weather report for Luray showed no rain. So we took Jonah out of school on the 4th day and headed out for our first family camping trip. It was a perfect evening. Not over crowded and just the nice chill you want on a camping trip.
We did all the usual camping things, boys had hot dogs, we had tinfoil dinners. An no camping trip would be complete without Smores. When we left the next day Chris asked the boys if they had a good time and would want to do it again. Of course they said yes!!! Chris said he was afraid they'd say that.

Excited about the hike to the river.

Tired and ready to be carried.

Hanging with dad during story time.

More Smores Please


We found these great battery powered glow sticks with a neck strap and whistle. After a while the whistle had to be controlled but the boys had fun taking lots of pictures similar to this.

Luray Caverns were amazing. I've been in many caves and this by far was the biggest and best I've ever seen. Pictures can do no justice for this natural wonder, but here are a few for you to look at.





This last picture is what happens when you ask someone else to take a picture for your blog. Chris didn't understand why this fascinated me but it did. This is a 6 foot body of water inside the cave. Over the years people have thrown thousands of coins and actual dollar bills into this "wishing pond." The amazing thing is that they started dredging up the coins and decided to donate them to a different charity each year. What the sign shows is how much money they donated each year. It started around $1,700 the first year and the last year they had on the sign was 2007 which was over $130,000. I wish you could actually see the sign. (If you click on the picture you can actually see the numbers.) It's amazing to think how fast small change adds up and what a difference it can make. They said sometimes there would only be a foot of water left in the deepest parts before they cleared the coins. Now they have to clear the coins several times a year.