Camping with Friends

The last weekend of September was spent in Chillicothe, Ohio with our friends the Chinns. What a beautiful break from the new adventures in Indiana to be reunited with community that we have shared the last four years of our lives with. As I was describing to someone what the Chinn family has been for us while in Virginia I realized we have spent more time with them then anyone else, saying 2-4x/week over the past four years between church, homegroup, football watching, play dates, borrowing stuff, swapping date night coverage... They've been the extension of our family and so the last 8 weeks without them has felt like forever.

We knew we wanted to connect our families this fall and so after looking at a map determined that Chillicothe was the halfway point for each of us to drive 4+ hours. Our first thought of staying at a camper cabin in the state park didn't pan out with booking, so we looked for other affordable options and decided we were all up for giving tent camping a try! I'm so glad we did, it was awesome. Having a 6,5,4 and 1.5 year old sleeping outside two nights I thought we might be crazy, but at least we will be crazy all together. But it was fine.

It rained overnight both nights, but things were relatively dry in the mornings and the weather felt great to be outdoors and enjoy campfires at night. The campground we stayed at was mostly populated by RVs, but they had a few 'primitive camping' spots that gave us a charcoal grill, picnic table and fire pit- while still being ~150 yards away from a bathhouse. We definitely recommend checking out Walnut Creek Campground if travels have you in the middle of Ohio. There was a pond with paddle boats that we explored one day, and a basic playground that the kids enjoyed each day.

Lots of memories were made, many more to come in what may be our annual trip ;)