July 16-19, 2009 Ionia State Park
We had another great weekend of camping, of course, even when there is bad weather - the weekend usually turns out great in one way or the other. This weekend we had anticipated for quite some time - as we were able to reserve Paul's favorite campsite of the campground.
One of the things we enjoy about using Michigan's State Parks is that many of them offer Young Explorer activities. We able to participate in several of these activities during the time we were there. We went down to the beach house and planted some seeds in decomposable toilet paper rolls. We were the only ones attending that particular session - so after planting our seeds the Young Explorer Ranger got out the rubber stamps and markers and the kids all made pictures to decorate the wall of the Activity Center.
We also attended an Astronomy Session at night. It was a cloudy night, so they were not able to view any stars so she had some other activities planned. She did a quiz time, in which Nicholas got many answers correct that the Young Explorer Ranger didn't even know and Gabrielle received a prize for listing all of the planets in order. They created flip books for the phases of the moon as well as turning Oreo Cookies into a Moon Phases demonstration.
On Saturday afternoon, we attended another Young Explorer session only to find the Ranger had a special guest. Wow, did we luck out on that one. Someone camping in the campground as a guest happened to see that she was doing a class on "Life in the Lake" and volunteered to help her with the class - she had taught that subject in the school system for 20 or 30 years. She was really good and full of knowledge. She had the kids all in the water with their nets collecting and learning to identify so much life. We caught Water Striders, DragonFly Nymphs in various stages and other nymph forms that I can't recall. Gabrielle and a few others found some baby snails, and every one had a great time.
We went hiking and collected wild flowers, and also walked through the Equestrian section of the campground. Grandma had met someone during registration that was camping there and told her to bring the kids up to see the horses and so we did.
It was cloudy every day, but then by late evening the clouds cleared off for beautiful sunsets over the lake and a sky full of stars. It was a great weekend and we can't wait to return to Ionia again next year (if not before).
We had another great weekend of camping, of course, even when there is bad weather - the weekend usually turns out great in one way or the other. This weekend we had anticipated for quite some time - as we were able to reserve Paul's favorite campsite of the campground.
One of the things we enjoy about using Michigan's State Parks is that many of them offer Young Explorer activities. We able to participate in several of these activities during the time we were there. We went down to the beach house and planted some seeds in decomposable toilet paper rolls. We were the only ones attending that particular session - so after planting our seeds the Young Explorer Ranger got out the rubber stamps and markers and the kids all made pictures to decorate the wall of the Activity Center.
We also attended an Astronomy Session at night. It was a cloudy night, so they were not able to view any stars so she had some other activities planned. She did a quiz time, in which Nicholas got many answers correct that the Young Explorer Ranger didn't even know and Gabrielle received a prize for listing all of the planets in order. They created flip books for the phases of the moon as well as turning Oreo Cookies into a Moon Phases demonstration.
On Saturday afternoon, we attended another Young Explorer session only to find the Ranger had a special guest. Wow, did we luck out on that one. Someone camping in the campground as a guest happened to see that she was doing a class on "Life in the Lake" and volunteered to help her with the class - she had taught that subject in the school system for 20 or 30 years. She was really good and full of knowledge. She had the kids all in the water with their nets collecting and learning to identify so much life. We caught Water Striders, DragonFly Nymphs in various stages and other nymph forms that I can't recall. Gabrielle and a few others found some baby snails, and every one had a great time.
We went hiking and collected wild flowers, and also walked through the Equestrian section of the campground. Grandma had met someone during registration that was camping there and told her to bring the kids up to see the horses and so we did.
It was cloudy every day, but then by late evening the clouds cleared off for beautiful sunsets over the lake and a sky full of stars. It was a great weekend and we can't wait to return to Ionia again next year (if not before).
![Nicholas](<a href="http://lilypie.com"><img border="0" alt="Lilypie Kids birthday Ticker" src="http://my.lilypie.com/TII1m4.png"/></a>)
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