Mounds State Park

We decided to take our very first family camping trip of the season to the closest Sate Park to our home.

There is quite a learning curve to understanding -
What to pack?
What to eat?
What to leave at home?
 What to leave in the Camper?
What to keep in the van vs. in the camper?
Where should we each sleep?
How is it to drive with a camper hitched to the back of the van?
and one last question we were hoping to never have to answer - WHAT TO DO IF IT RAINS!?

We arrived and got our camper set up - which is an experience in and of itself!
And then, it started to drizzle....so we headed to bed without a campfire and hoped the next day would be better. We awoke the next morning and we went on a hike throughout the state park.

It's called Mounds for a very good reason. There are ancient mounds that were built hundreds of years ago. They were pretty interesting and the kids enjoyed discovering them throughout the hike.

We got back to the campsite for lunch and the rains came yet again... So we played for a good while in the camper and then headed to Anderson University, where our nephew MJ was playing a basketball tournament. We watched the game, went out to dinner at the Lemon Drop Inn (a historic, nostalgic greasy spoon that has been around for decades) and headed back to the camp site as the skies opened and the stars came out.
We finally got to use the campfire and made s'mores and then headed to bed. It was a great first camping trip of the season and really helped me (us) get get a better handle on this whole camping thing!