So this year we headed to a state park just south of Muskegon, MI. Not too long of a drive, and we planned the trip so we avoided rush hour (for the most part!). We got there and got set up pretty easily, and the boys were super excited. Izzy was content just to watch from her stroller for the moment. We spent the next 4 days exploring, hiking, playing, swimming, and cooking over the fire!!!
One day, Daddy took both boys for a hike. When they got back the first thing Blake ran to tell me was, "Mommy, when we were hiking, we went potty in Nature!"
One afternoon, I took the boys to the beach to play. I coated each of them with sunscreen, and they came home looking pretty good. Me, I came home looking like a lobster!!! Oopsies!
We also took the time to walk down the stream which started right at the lake. We followed it down and around the bend where we found lots of trees and logs that had fallen across the stream. The boys spent a good hour crossing the trees "like animals" (on all fours) and completing "missions"! They would say to each other, "Your mission is to cross the stream without getting wet and without the other kids getting in your way. Do you accept this mission??" Apparently they've watched WAY too many spy cartoons (which ones are those anyway??).
Izzy wasn't a big fan of the dirt/sand combination that was the ground at the campsite. She would walk and play with the toys we had and was happy most of the time. BUT, if she fell down, she was NOT happy. She didn't want to touch the dirt!!! She would sit there (or lie there on her tummy!) with her hands in the air and wait for someone to get her up. And if you didn't come soon enough, she would scream for you!!!
The boys also had a great time playing with their toy dinosaurs around the campsite. They would bury the dinosaur skeletons in the sand and then be paleontologists and "discover" them, and they would let their other dinosaurs go on field trips and eat the plants ("Well they are herbivores Mom!")!
One day the boys and I took a hike to the Sand Dune Staircase. 207 steps up (and 207 back down!). But it was totally worth it!!! Even the boys agreed!
The view from the top:
Lessons learned:
- splitting the boys up to sleep in two different tents is a GREAT idea!!!
- glow sticks are good!!
- waiting to put them to bed until it's actually dark (which is pretty late in MI) and they are exhausted is also a GREAT idea!!!
- taking the boys away from the campsite for an hour or two in the afternoon is the best way to get Izzy to take a nap. Repeat this same thing when she goes to bed at night or she will stay up playing in her pack n play until 11:30!!!!
- dessert is the best meal of the day, ESPECIALLY when it is cooked over the campfire. Marshmallows, smores, and apple pies (in the pie irons) were huge hits and all of us had seconds and thirds!!!
- the boys loved all the classes for kids that the DNRE offered. They learned about turtles, ladybugs, and mammals. They know what: crepuscular, diurnal, and nocturnal mean and which animals are which. Do you???
It was a great trip. The boys spent the car ride home asking when we would go camping again. I'd love to go again this summer, but I don't think Daddy's work schedule will allow it =(. We'll definitely fit one in next summer.....somewhere new of course!
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