Hiking, bike rides, and s'mores...Oh my!!!

This past weekend, my family went on the annual Gaerke family camping trip. My entire dad's side of the family goes to Oubache State Park near Bluffton, IN every year and this is no small ordeal bc my dad has 7 siblings and 5 of them have at least 3 kids--and some of those kids are starting to have kids! However, because all the cousins are growing up, not everyone makes it out and it seems like as the years go by, the group gets smaller. Nevertheless, we have a BLAST and it's great to see everyone who can make it out.

We headed out for a hike after everyone got there on Thurs. night.

Had to visit the buffalo...this is the big daddy! I think it's a brawl: dog vs. buffalo. Any bets on who'd win?!;)

Gorgeous sunset over Kunkle Lake (not so gorgeous name:/lo)

Mom and Gina playing hillbilly Golf the next afternoon--VERY fun game!

Ah, ok. So as soon as I got to the campground I started itching real bad and figured out that I had Jiggers. They're these bugs that (brace yourself) crawl into your skin, lay eggs, and then crawl back out. EWWWWW:0 Anyway, the Benedryl I had wasn't helping the itch so they always say that clear nail polish works well. However, since we were camping, no one had clear nail polish--but my aunt found some purlpe shimmery stuff in her camper! So I was lathered in purple nail poliish--think i could start a new trend?! hehe

Dinner=yum!

All of us getting ready to bike to Bluffton--12 miles!

The classic photo--small group tho:(

Have to stop and get milkshakes at Hardees to re-energize for the ride back!

We headed to the pool to cool off--we got what we asked for bc the water was freezing!!
Gavin, my cousin Sarah's little 9mo-old cutie:), went swimming for the first time....he wasn't to thrilled about the cold water either:P

Nate and I took a paddle boat out on good ol' Kunkle Lake. We got stuck in a bunch of muck tho...the lake is pretty disgusting:/

Nate and I continued our adventures at the fire tower--we climbed all 106 steps!

And made it to the top alive!

It's not camping without a great campfire--this is a Gaerke specialty:)