Camping with the McC's at Lake McC

We went camping this weekend with the McConnell's at Lake McConaughy. Here's the highlights...

• We got a late start...stopped in Sterling for gas...Andy made a U-turn on a one way street into three on-coming cars and almost gave me a heart attach...stopped in Julesburg for a some lunch and my tuna sandwich was dripping in mayo (I like mayo, but, yuck)...
• Finally met the McC's near Lake McC and drove around looking for the best place to make camp...
• Our first turn-off took us to the Spillway...there were no white sand beaches...and no camping allowed...we kept looking...
• We found a beach that looked pretty good, and piece of real estate there that seemed perfect...it had a dune, a tree (which we were confident would provide us some great afternoon shade the next day), it looked like it was a short walk down to the water, and there was plenty of room for both of our 6-people tents...
• Pitched the tents (including pack-n-plays...which were definately the way to go), dug our cooking pit and our fire pit...and enjoyed the evening. Both kids went to bed easily (although later than normal)...Enchilada Pie for dinner and it was great...made some smores...and then went to bed (in our very roomy 6-person tent...even Andy could stand up in our tent!)...
• Woke up next day and had some breakfast burritos....by 9AM the sun was scorching and we were looking forward to the afternoon shade our tree would surely provide....
• After Colt's nap, we made a foray down to the water (turned out to be a bit of hike down there...the lake is so big, it made our campsite appear to be more water-front than it actually was...but still not bad)...the water was a little chilly and it was windy...still both kids had fun playing in the water (see video of Andy, Exia, Josh, and Colten)...we stayed until their little teeth were chattering...
• Went back to camp and tried to hide out in the small stretch of shade the Pilot was providing...
• By lunch time, we couldn't take the sun any longer and we moved further up the beach to a group of trees that were providing some shade...the site (just a few yards from our campsite) was less inhabitable than our campsite...it had some mean weeds (we had to keep the kids on the blanket) and biting flies (our conversations went something like this "blah blah blah, ahhh, #$@%!", as we smacked our ankles where the biting flies were attacking)...but it was worth it...it felt like it was about 10degrees cooler there than in the sun...
• Neither of the kids took a very good PM nap as the tents were just so hot inside...
• We made another trip down to the water...it was much less chilly and much more refreshing the second time...
• Our campsite tree (which we were so confident would provide great PM shade) never did perform...finally some storm clouds moved in and we moved back to our luxurious feeling campsite (free of biting flies)...Kabobs for dinner which were great...we tried getting both kids to bed more on time...but they had a hard time settling down...finally they did...
• Had peach cobbler for dessert and sat around our fire...all completely exhausted from the day and a little tired of being covered in sand...
• Next morning...breakfast burritos...packed up...and headed home...

It was so much fun. Exia and Colten did a great job and it was so relaxing! (Although, seriously, I was pretty tired of having sand EVERYWHERE...taking a shower when we got home felt really really really good!). LOTS more pictures in July's photo album.