{"id":598,"date":"2011-07-01T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-07-01T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/07\/road-trip-2011-vermont-camping-fun-dump-cake-fun.html"},"modified":"2011-07-01T17:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-07-01T17:00:00","slug":"road-trip-2011-vermont-camping-fun-dump-cake-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/07\/road-trip-2011-vermont-camping-fun-dump-cake-fun.html","title":{"rendered":"Road Trip 2011: Vermont Camping Fun & Dump Cake Fun!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last weekend the boys and I bid farewell to Dave in Harrisburg headed up to the Stratton, Vermont area for some camping with my dear friend (and former college roommate) Megan and her son Aidan. Some mother\/son bonding time was had by all \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

We had a great time catching up — we last saw Megan in 2008 and Aidan had grown up so much!  Literally, he must be a head taller than Jacob, and they’re only about 3 months apart in age.<\/p>\n

It was chilly and rainy most of the weekend. Every day the forecast called for clearing the next day, but then it remained drizzly and cloudy. Ugh! It cleared up our last evening there, and by then the firewood was too wet to burn.  Were it not for the lousy weather, I’d have called it a perfect weekend! The kids got along very well together.<\/p>\n

Our trip to the Wanderlust Yoga & Music festival<\/a> will be saved for another post, but for now here are some pictures of our camping trip, and then enjoy my semi-made-up dump cake recipe for the Dutch oven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Our set up for 3 days.  No complaints about our tent or the temperatures.  At least it wasn’t a cold rain.  The canopy was a godsend for  keeping the table dry for meals.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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This is a white admiral butterfly fluttering near the fire ring.  Common in New England.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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Jacob and Aidan were teaching Timmy how to play catcher.  We purposefully chose a tent site near a field so the boys could play baseball.  They played for hours all weekend…this was a game they were playing as soon as they woke up, they’re in their pajamas still.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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Our one and only hike at Townshend State Park, which was cut short due to the trail crossing a creek that was running so high and fast I didn’t trust Timmy making it across.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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Dave had the good camera, all of these camping shots were taken with my iPhone.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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Since the hike was cut short, the boys could spend extra time skipping stones across the creek.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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Since it was too wet to make a fire for the hot dogs, we used our camp stove.  Corn steaming on the left, dogs\/brats and rice pilaf (cooking on the backpacking stove on the right) for dinner.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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Now that you’re drooling from our camp dinner, let’s talk about what we did for dessert.<\/p>\n

I had brought along my Dutch oven. I have a 10″ Lodge footed Dutch oven with a brimmed lid.  I’ve owned it since 1997 or so, it’s been great for Civil War reenacting meals and with enough care, I’ve been able to use it to cook on modern family campouts too.<\/p>\n

Because of the lousy weather, Megan and I weren’t sure whether we’d use the Dutch oven at all, but on Sunday at the grocery store, I quickly grabbed some cake mix and pie filling and decided to throw together an easy dump cake.<\/p>\n