October 12-14, 2007

The Final Camping Trip of the Summer

After a week or so of struggling with where to take the family for our final weekend in the trailer , we decided on trying our first state park. We headed out to the Muskegon State Park - Channel Campground. It is a different type of camping than we have done before, no water hookup and the trailer was parked on a cement pad. We had a great time, and setting up was so easy - no deciding where to put the trailer on the site and no leveling. The hardest part was deciding which campsite to choose as the campground was pretty empty. It was a cold weekend, but we had so much fun. We chose a site that had no sites behind us, and there was a small hiking type trail leading right from our site to the beach on Muskegon Lake. We decided that the kids would love having a little bit of freedom to explore this area, and we were correct. The loves playing hide and seek. Believe it or not, this was also our first camping trip with no one else camping with us. We had such a great time, as a family. It was cold, but we stayed dry except for a few raindrops Sunday morning that never even got the ground wet. Here are some of our memorable moments.

Enjoying some hot chocolate by the fire.

Sam is bundled up by Papa

The small wooded area and short hiking trail leading to the beach

on Muskegon Lake.

We are used to seeing sunsets, this time we got to see the sun

come up in the morning.

It was a brisk morning, but we are ready to explore the campground.

I knew there was a pretty decent playground on the other side of the channel, so this was the perfect weekend to take a drive around Muskegon Lake and let the kids check it out.

We walked down by the Silversides Submarine to look around. The kids posed for a picture atop a torpedo they have on display on the grounds.

Back at the campground - A hike up the dune trail

Papa and Nicholas are the first ones to declare themselves "King of the Mountain"

Allison did so well, for being so young. She never complained and was very motivated to "reach the summit"

Gabrielle joins Papa and Nicholas and encourage Allison (and Mama with Sam) to join them at the top.

I'm almost there Papa, can you help me out a little?

I did it, I'm Queen of the Mountain, too!!!

The kids decided they could slide down the dune, on their bottoms.

Walking back to camp via the beach on Muskegon Lake

Posing for a picture on a log at the beach

We got in the truck and drove down the Lake Michigan Beach Access to watch our final sunset for the year. We missed the sunset because of a cloud bank, but the kids had a blast running around, and even posed for some great pictures with the awesome lighting coming from the sunset.

I cut my bottom teeth while camping this summer, so I decided I better cut the top ones while camping too.

Having fun on the beach

Posing for some pictures with Papa

The sunset before we lost it behind the clouds.

Some pictures of the kids to close out the camping season.

It looked like it was going to rain Sunday morning, so we packed up the campsite first thing. After everything was packed up, we drove down (with the trailer) to the winter sports complex at the other end of the Muskegon State Park (across from RuthAnn's for those who are familiar). We had a map of all of the hiking trails that go through there and set off for one final hike. We will definately be making more trips there next year, it was great. Nicholas, in particular, LOVED using the trail map, and finding the navigation markers in the woods to get us where we needed to go. The trail we selected took us through the LUGE run they have there. The kids loved having to climb all of the steps and check everything out.

Looking for the next trail marker, to lead us out of the woods so we can head home.