June 27 - 28, 2008
Stony Haven Campground

Again, in our quest to find new places to camp, we tried a new campground. We found it on-line and in the Campground Directory. The campground was small and basic. They had a few seasonals and some very nice cabins that you can rent. However, for us - it was just not our style. We sort of felt like we were camping in someone's backyard. The lake access was not within walking distance - we had to drive. The playground was fun, but there just wasn't a lot to occupy our time.

The weekend, however, was a complete success. Since the campground didn't have a lot to offer, we used it as "home base" and headed up to Silver Lake for a day. That was a GREAT time. We will definately return to that area in the future - but will probably try to find a different place to camp.

June 23, 2008 - Fun In the Sun

It was supposed to be a warm day, so I went out first thing in the morning and filled both of the pools with water. I figured it wouldn't take long for the water to warm up enough for the kids to have fun in the afternoon. I had set up the small pool for Sam because he still has a little trouble getting in and out of the big pool. What I didn't expect was that the baby pool was going to be the star of the show that day.

(In case you're wondering as you watch, Nicholas was grounded from swimming that day - can't remember why, but that is why he is not involved and can be seen fully clothed in a few of the shots)

June 12 - 15, 2008
Diamond Lake Campground

Well, we set out this year to try some new campgrounds. We wanted to experience more things and see what else was out there. Our first try at White River was a success, so the next new campground on our agenda was Diamond Lake Campground.

Diamond Lake was formerly owned by Steelcase and was run as a private campground for their employees for many years. Newaygo County recently took it over and it is open to the public. It looked like a nice little campground on a small lake where the kids could swim.

Well, needless to say we had a great time, but we probably won't return. The playground was very old and we weren't really comfortable letting the kids play on it. The roads were paved but quite hilly so it wasn't great for the kids to ride their bikes. If you camped in the back section I think you would get carries away by the mosquitos. We were in the middle section which was basically a small field with campsites on both outside edges and a bathhouse on the back edge. The one nice thing was that we were alone the first day and the kids basically had free reign of the entire field area, to play, ride bikes down the hill behind our trailer, catch butterflies etc.

The kids enjoyed the swimming and were able to build a few sandcastles in the sand. We took an afternoon to drive over to Newaygo State Park for some hiking along the river and to see the Croton Hardy Dam. We stopped at another Newaygo County Park called Sandy Beach to check it out, as some friends of ours recommended it. We had lunch there along the river, and then the kids played on the playground for a little while.

I must admit, that even though the accomodations of the campground weren't that grand, we had a great time together.

May 30, 2008 - June 3, 2008 White River Campground

We had so much fun at our last trip to White River, that we went back a couple of weeks later with Grandma and Grandpa. The pool was open this time and we discovered a nature preserve just down the road. It was a great place. There were several different trails and they were open to both hiking and bicycling. The first time we went with Grandma and Grandpa and took a nice hike. Then after Grandma and Grandpa left on Monday we went back. The girls, Sam and myself went hiking and Paul and Nicholas headed off on their bikes. We had such a great time.

We also saw lots of animals. We saw many large turtles that came up out of the river to lay their eggs, and we found a baby turtle waking along the road one morning. We also saw a snake in the water, several frogs, some baby birds up in their nest in the tree, a raccoon running into the woods and got the oppourtunity to catch many moths and butterflies.

White River Campground will definately be on our list for spring camping again next year.