Our vacation started out last Tuesday. We had never tent camped with our kids for real before this. We've camped in the back yard and a couple of weeks ago at the camp ground next to my parent's trailer. But never for real. Before last Tuesday.

The main reason for this is that Derek was sure that so much could go wrong.

Like being rained on.

And getting wet.

And having our tent leak.

And getting his sleeping bag wet.

I wasn't worried about any of that.

Even at 2am Tues. night/Wed.morning when it down poured.

FOR

TWO

HOURS!

The first night of our camp out.

Derek and Miranda

WERE

NOT

HAPPY.

The other girls slept right through it.

I figured that there was nothing that I could do about it so I went back to sleep after about an hour of praying. I couldn't change the situation so I stopped fretting and went back to dreamland.

Derek.

NOT

SO

MUCH.

But before all of this, we had a fabulous first day of our vacation. We headed up to Itasca state park first. It is absolutely beautiful up there! We took a 2 hour guided boat tour of Lake Itasca and saw a bald eagle, deer, a blue heron, an osprey, loons and a water snake. The scenery was amazing, calm and serene!

After that Miranda led us on an unplanned 2+ mile hike (in our flip flops and crocks).

I loved it, so much green. And so quiet that you could hear the trees creak in the wind.

Following a bathroom and gift shop break we drove over to the headwaters of the Mississippi.

It is inspiring to see that the mighty Mississippi starts as just a quaint little stream that even Kamiryn can wade across. The girls had a lot of fun wading, splashing, crossing the rocks and the split log bridge. They enjoyed it so much that we returned to the headwaters the next morning while we waited for our tent and sleeping bags to dry out before we packed up.

After the headwaters on Tuesday evening we went back to camp, set up and had hot dogs.

And then......

Well I've already told you what happened after that!

Up next....days two and three at Gooseberry Falls.