Camping Weekend

We celebrated Memorial Weekend by attending a Family YMCA camp called Camp Icoghowan.  The "island" camp is in Amery, Wisconsin which is about an hour from our home in Woodbury, MN.  

We had a GREAT weekend!  There were so many fun activities planned that you could choose whether or not to participate in....I think we tried most all of them :)

Here the boys are geared up for the climbing wall.  

Macallan didn't make it too far off the ground! :)

Jacob made it to the top to ring the bell.

Mitchell and Maverick gave it a try too :)

They had a lot of fun structures in and around the woods that the boys enjoyed exploring.

 The treehouse was a big hit with the boys!  Families could actually sleep up here if they wanted!  We didn't do it this year, but I can see it in our future!

Mitchell actually took this picture of Jacob.  Hmmm...maybe he's a little photographer in the making.

We even had some "adult" time where the camp counselors took the kids to play games, while the adults could choose how to spend their time.  Jacob decided to do a high ropes activity called "The Leap of Faith".  He was secured by three different sets of ropes as he climbed the pole on the left, stood up on top of it and jumped off to try and touch a blue buoy.  Maybe it doesn't sound that tough, but of the 15ish adults that tried, only 3 or 4 succeeded, including Jacob!

Climbing up...

Balancing on the top is the hardest part!

This is definitely a look of relief when he was done :)

Our family was in charge of the flag raising on Memorial Day.  The boys were very helpful :)

Some of the families gathered to watch the flag raising in front of the lake.

After the flag raising, the morning activities began!  There were some anxious campers!

Each morning, there is an optional activity called the Polar Bear Plunge.  Yep, exactly as it sounds. You can CHOOSE to JUMP into freezing cold water!  From the beginning, Mitchell kept saying he wanted to do it.  We made him watch the first morning with the understanding that if he was still interested, we'd let him do it the second morning.  Well, not only was he still interested, but he also talked a new little friend (Lincoln) into joining him in the plunge!

Look at these SILLY boys before their jump!

Guess who didn't want to be left out?  Yep, Maverick decided he needed to jump too!  We let him strip down to his underwear and suit up in his life jacket.  Honestly, I didn't really think he'd do it!  Maverick is a popsicle in cold weather!

Oh - by the way, the water temperature was a balmy 55 degrees!

So, they agreed to count to three and then jump in.  One, two, three....and the only jumper was little Lincoln! 

Followed by Mitchell...

 ....and Maverick continues to consider whether he can really make himself do this!

Maverick is STILL considering!

...And he finally did it!

Mitchell and Maverick absolutely LOVED playing games with all of the other kids.  One of Mitchell's favorite was a game kind of similar to dodge ball called "Gaga".

It was a BUSY weekend, but we did have a little rest and relaxation time too :)

As you can see, the chairs were REALLY comfy :) 

We had a REALLY great family weekend at the camp.  Zero electronics for the entire weekend, LOTS of time together, trying new, fun things outdoors!  We're planning to go back next year!