Annual Fall Church Camping Trip | 2015

Back in October we had our

annual fall church camping trip up at Indiana Dunes.

It is SUCH a beautiful place and I never get tired of the sound

of crashing waves, the feeling of sand beneath my feet

and the beautiful sunsets God displays before us.

I had such a wonderful trip and had

many good talks, walks, laughs, photographic moments

(many of which were not captured :( ).

I am so blessed to be able to spend these long weekends 

with most the people I love!

I'm normally one to have a large, over packed suitcase...

I decided to downsize for a 3 day camping trip. I mean how

hard could it really be?!! Lets just say I went home with a partially 

zipped suitcase! it was like an erupting volcano :D  

I don't normally go on a trip w/o a caramel drink 

of some sort from Starbucks! 

I came out to the car the morning we were leaving for the dunes and my younger brothers

Isaiah and Paul had decorated the back of the van with a little "Hawaii or bust" decor!

on our previous trip last fall we had gotten the hawaiian skirts at a family reunion

and we had an hour drive back to ur grandpas afterwords. So I took the velcro and stuck

it to the ceiling and i would peek out and say "Hawaii or Bust" (in a weird sort of voice!).

So it was kind of a little joke we had, that I'd sit in the back every vacation and think we were in

Hawaii when we arrived (Because our 15 passenger van can fly and all!) :'D Haha, Indiana 

dunes at least had sand and crashing waves! 

Paul and I in the little shack in the back!

The sunset the first evening we were there gave us a very warm welcome!

(we'll just pretend it wasn't really windy!)

Michaela an I matched in our flat bills and we didn't even plan it!

That pastel sky ♥u♥ *all the heart eyes*

Campfires and s'mores

It is so hard to stay quiet when you're up late with these ladies!

we may or may not have woken a few campers...

The first morning some of us girls went down to the beach to have

Bible time. We attempted sitting on the beach but the wind was real

strong and our bibles were filled with sand. After probably 15 minutes

we went up into this building and it solved the problem pretty well!

After breakfast and devotions with everyone, we took a hike.

Thank you Emily and Michaela for being our navigators! I don't 

really enjoy following maps... I get all mixed up and think we're in a totally different location :) 

Me and Cassidy... When we finally reached the top of a dune & the wind was even stronger!

we all plopped down and tried to keep warm and block out the wind with our blankets! It even

sprinkled a little.

You can see a teeny tiny view of the chicago skyline in this photo.

Another beautiful sunset... I was amazed at this sunset in particular. if you look at the clouds

they formed this 'window' around the sunset! the rest of the sky was this dark grey sheet of clouds.

But there was this little opening with a beautiful view of God's creation.

 

The next day we had beautiful sunshine! 

Anna was taking senior photos of Cassidy so I asked if I could come along and watch ;)

Credits to Anna for posing Emily... I just told Emily to freeze so I could get a photo too before she moved!

I SPIED A SAILBOAT!!! thanks to my cameras excessive zoom you can actually kind of see it!

And this sunset was just... mmmm.... pure beauty!

I did do a little photoshoot of Michaela while at the dunes but I'm still editing them and 

getting them ready to post! I'm so excited because she is such a model!

Thanks to the random white jeep for randomly being there for this photo...

Makes it 10x beachier :'D

The last morning was so pastel and whimsical which was great for taking

more photos of Michaela! 

We came across a sweet old man with a very energetic, adorable, fluffy dog and he asked 

if we wanted a photo together. Yes I'm still in my pajamas but who cares!

I noticed I never get in front of the lens on trips because I get so stuck in the 

'I need to capture everything for my blog' that i forget to say "Hey Franky, mind taking a

photo of us?"!! (Yes, I just used Franky for an example!). So thanks to the old man for the photo!

 

I love how teal the water looks. It looks more like the ocean that way!

Oh, look! another photo of me :)

One last hike with some friends before departure.

The board walk through the swamp... It was lovely and one of

my favorite parts of the hike.

That sums it up mostly! 

Hope you enjoyed it (Its taken me a while gathering

all my photos together!)

Have a whimsical day,

Alaina