Have S'more fun at Lakewood Ranch Community Campout

Rich and Blakely Williams have lived in Lakewood Ranch for eight years, but it was the first time they brought their four kids to the Lakewood Ranch Community Campout.

Lakewood Ranch Community Activities hosted the campout Feb. 15 at Greenbrook Adventure Park.

Blakely Williams said there were two milestones the children — 3-year-old Briley, 4-year-old Blake, 7-year-old Blaine and 9-year-old Brayden, had to hit before the family’s first campout. 

They had to be potty trained, and they had to sleep through the night. 

“We didn’t want to wake up our neighbors,” she said. 

Now, the youngest Briley checks all the boxes, so the family pitched two tents and packed all sorts of things that glow in the dark.

They had plenty to do.

The Sidewalk Science Center was ready with a telescope to give guided tours of everything glowing in the sky. Astronomer Jennifer Arsenault said they would be looking for Mars, Venus, Saturn and Jupiter.

Before the sun went down, the science center shot off bottle rockets, let the kids solve puzzles, and led experiments with robotics. 

Ash Piercy was continuing a family tradition of camping with her son Samuel and her friends, the Haertel family. 

“Normally, it’s so cold that the adults are huddled around the campfire,” she said. “But it’s one of those memories that the kids always talk about and will remember.”