Just Johnsons: Lake Hemet

'The Hubs' and his family had been planning our first family camping trip since May. He's the second born of 6 kids, all of whom are married and have kids of their own. It was near impossible to get it all together and, in the end, some families had to bail out. We had the best time and hopefully, everyone will be able to make it the next time we do it. And, the next time we do it, we'll check the weather report ahead of time.

We arrive at Lake Hemet just before dark on Friday evening. We had just enough time to put up the tent and get our stuff situated before the sun went down. We cooked dinner over the campfire and then froze our tails off for a bit before trying to go to sleep. It was freezing!

'Munchkin' and I ended up heading down the mountain and going home to our warm beds around midnight. We were so cold and the poor girl could not sleep. When we got in the car, the thermostat read 39 degrees. Thank goodness we camped close to home. 'The Hubs' and 'The Boy' stay behind and ended up cuddling in the same bed trying to keep warm all night.

'Munchkin' and I drove back to the campsite in the late morning. Just in time to do a little lakeside fishing.

Our set up. Our tent is in the middle.

This is the view of the lake from our campsite. So beautiful.

She ran and ran in the dirt and mud...

...and she loved every second of it!

'The Boy' got to try out his new fishing pole.

They tried, but had no luck catching that morning.

So we went back to the campsite for lunch. Trever and Natalie hitched a ride with Papa.

After lunch, Uncle Ryan and 'The Hubs' took the boys on a boat out on the lake for some more fishing. 'The Boy' fell asleep and ended up with an awesome sunburn. 'Munchkin' and I stayed behind with the other girls and Papa. We took a nice afternoon snooze in our tent. So relaxing. The boys came back with no fish.

That night, we grilled up some food and sat by the campfire. My favorite part of camping. And I brought back all sorts of stuff to keep us warm throughout the night. Extra jammies, sweatshirts, thermal underwear, you name it. We were not going to bed cold again!

Poor sunburned boy.

Natalie...I swear she is saying "cheeeeeese".

The kids loved sitting in their camping chairs by the fire. In fact, Trever fell asleep sitting in his chair with a s'mores in hand. Why didn't I get a picture of that?!

We all made it through the night. Thank goodness I had grabbed every blanket in the house before coming back. The next morning, we woke up and had an awesome breakfast...eggs, sausage, toasted bagels. It pays to camp with people who have good gear.

Then, the boys got down to the very serious business of catching a fish. "The Hubs' and Uncle Ryan set the poles up and kept a close eye on them. Sure enough, each boy caught a fish. 'The Boy' reeled his in completely on his own. That was a proud moment for Daddy.