July 31, 2010
Ionia State Park
Day 2

Today was pretty much a relaxing day of miscellaneous activities but nothing specific going on. You have to have some of those when your on vacation right?

I thought it was quite cute how the kids pulled up their chairs and sat watching Paul chop some fire wood. You'd think they had to purchase tickets for the performance.

A picture is worth a thousand words right?
Well, I hope that this picture reminds me of the story that goes along with it for years to come.
Yesterday, Grandpa and Nicholas had walked into the woods a little ways and found what Nicholas called "a swamp". He kept asking to go back, so Grandma decided some one-on-one time was in order and just her and Nicholas went for a hike back to "the swamp". Nicholas was prepared this time and was wearing his rubber boots. A little while later only Grandma came back. She said that Nicholas stepped into the swamp and immediately sunk into the mud to the point of not being able to move. He took another step to try to free his foot only to get the other foot stuck as well. She told us she couldn't get him out. After my initial shock of disbelief that she just left him there to come get us, we heard giggling and Nicholas came out from his hiding place. Turns out Grandma had to use a stick to pull Nicholas out of the muck.

Nicholas took us back to his swamp a little later. It really was just a little mud hole, but to him it was "his swamp". Anyway, while we were hiking back there we found a great log for a quick group picture.

Nicholas on the hike in the woods.

Gabrielle had picked one of our boxes of cereal for the weekend: Meijer brand Fruity Treasures, just like Fruity Pebbles right? Well, I think these were a little bit too sweet for her because she didn't like them. However, Sam and I discovered that when you add a bag of marshmallows and a little butter - they make great Fruity Krispy Treats. I think me and the kids finished the entire pan within an hour or so.

July 29, 2010
Ionia State Park

We made reservations for this trip an entire 6 months in advance.
We even scheduled our arrival one day earlier than we originally planned in order to guarantee that we got the site that we wanted....our favorite site of the entire park.

We love to go to bed to this.....

...and wake up to this. Beautiful and peaceful, at least to me.

July 30, 2010
Day 1 at Ionia State Park

Paul had a golf outing for work today, so he commuted into town for the outing and we spent the day with Grandma and Grandpa. We started the morning with a walk, which of course, with the kids that included scooters. Over the summer, I can't count the number of times the Gabrielle helped Sam with his bike helmet - so I couldn't resist catching a picture of Sam helping Gabrielle with hers.

The most memorable part of today's walk was the discovery of wild blackberries. We found them in several different places throughout the campground. The biggest find ended up being directly across the street from our campsite.

I think we ended up with spending 1/2 the morning picking berries. We had many scratches to prove it as the berries just kept begging us to go a little bit deeper into the thicket.

After you pick the berries, you have to wash them right?
Good thing between Grandma and I, we had a total of 4 collanders - because each of the kids wanted to wash their own berries.

We finally convinced the kids to combine all of them into one bowl.

As if, they hadn't tried enough berries while we were picking them -
they all sat and ate a few more.

Later, in the afternoon we headed down to the 'Nature Nook' at the beach house.
The Young Explorer program was offering a time to explore and do some crafts. We were the only ones there, so they had the Young Explorer Ranger all to herself and they sure kept her busy with all of them wanting to do different things.

One of the things we did was make necklaces. The beads are made out of paper and I am looking forward to trying it again sometime with some different color schemes. The beads turned out to be a little more difficult for the kids, so mom and I made beads and the girls strung the necklaces.

Gabrielle's favorite part was the painting. I think she painted 4 or 5 different pictures all a little different. In this shot, she was very carefully painted more of an abstract type of painting and it turned out really nice. She definately has some talent when it comes to artwork.

Sam was very proud of his piece of artwork as well.

The kids helped Grandma with dinner that night.
Sam and Gabrielle dressed the part in the aprons and cooking mitts.

More to come....

July 25, 2010
Day Trip to Whitehall/Montague

This year we have been camping more weekends than ever before. Because of all the extra camping, we haven't done as many day trip adventures as we did last year. However, we were home this weekend and took advantage of some beautiful weather. We drove up to the Montague, which is not really that far from our house, and spent some time riding our bikes.

We tried something a little different for this bike trip and it turned out quite well. We were able to cover more miles by doing a set-up that allowed the kids to rotate their positions. We had Nicholas on his bike, and Gabrielle on hers, one kid in the bike trailer and one on the tag-a-along. As one kid got tired, we rotated them around and for the most part it worked very well and we ended up with almost 10 miles for the day, which is quite good for the age of our kids.

It was Sam's first opportunity to ride the tag-a-long and he LOVED it!

This is what happens when you find a park along the way.

After completing the Medberry Trail, we went back to the trailhead of the Hart-Montague Trail and found that the Township had added on a community section that winds through neighborhoods and was a very beautiful ride. There were several street corners where the trail went right through a beautiful garden maintained by different organizations.

Almost 5 miles into the ride, Nicholas started to tire out. We moved things around a little and Gabrielle rode his bike for a while. She was so proud to be riding a "gear bike" - it took a little adjusting to using only hand brakes but she did very well. The bike is a little big for her right now, but she managed and is hoping that next year she will able to get a mountain bike of her own.

Another thing we discovered were various
forms of artwork and sculptures along the way.
This bald eagle was made out of wood.

Metal wild flower sculpture.

What happens when you have too many tired kids and too many bikes?
You get creative. We removed the handle from the bike trailer and managed to form a sort of bike rack by running the handle back through the bike frame of Gabrielle's bike.

A job well done - they made it almost 10 miles!
(even though none of them actually rode the entire way - they did great!)

The best way to finish a bike ride is ice cream right?
The kids loved this little place because
the picnic tables were all on the roof of the building.

After our stop for ice cream we drove out Old Channel Trail to the lakeshore.
Although, we have seen White River Light Station several times in the past few
years - this was the first time we were on this side of the channel.

The kids had a great time cooling off, by standing on the pier and
letting the waves splash up on them.

One soggy, wet but happy little girl.

Posing in front of the lighthouse.

On the way back to the truck - Sam found this rock and decided he could lift it.
Needless to say - he was wrong, but loved the picture of his trying.

July 15-18, 2010
Yankee Springs
Misc Pictures

As you can tell from my previous posts, our trip to Gun Lake was filled with a birthday party and lots and lots of swimming. However, there were also some funny things that happened back at the trailer during those few times that we were actually hanging out there.

Allison had handed out candy as her party favors for her birthday, in addition, Aunt Catherine painted the girls nails. Gabrielle thought it was really funny when she had new pink nails and a blue tongue from her Laffy Taffy. She found it even funnier when she realized her tongue matched her shirt.

As I mentioned before, Aunt Barb brought some of her
grandkids out to the lake for the day.
While the other kids were in the water,
Matea and Grandma had some great one on one time on the swing.

On the way back from the lake one night,
the kids discovered the library they had at the camp ground host site.
They each picked a book for the evening, and I thought it was really cute
how Joshua and Allison plopped themselves in their chairs
next to the fire with their newly borrowed books.
I love seeing their love for reading.

Matthew had a blast eating marshmallows.
The facial expressions he made as he was given the freedom to
dig into that marshmallow bag was priceless.
Then, after he got the marshmallow he had to stuff the entire
thing in his mouth at one time. Hilarious!

I don't know how it got started, but one by one all of the kids ended up in
Matthew's little play area/jail/cage - whichever words you choose to use.
It was quite a sight.

July 15-18, 2010
Yankee Springs - Gun Lake

As I look at the pictures from this year's Gun Lake trip - I am reminded of our trip their last year. Last year, it rained and was freezing cold. One evening we had even discussed going out to eat just to warm up our bones. We also did some fishing and hiking because that was the type of weekend that it was. We never even put our swimsuits on that weekend, as most of the time we were wearing sweatshirts and coats.

This year was so different. It was hot and steamy. We headed to down to the lake to go swimming 2 or sometimes 3 times a day. We never hiked and didn't even get our fishing poles out of the trailer. We enjoyed time with Uncle Shawn's boat and just plain had a lot of fun together. I did get some pictures, but due to the fact that I was usually in the water with the kids they are actually quite limited as to how many times I actually got the camera out.

The kids are all learning how to swim so well. It is wonderful to not have to mess with life jackets everytime we go into the water, but on the other hand the kids lack of floatation devices changes the way you watch the kids in the water, and I found myself constantly counting heads.
The kids had a lot of fun with Aunt Catherine in the water - she showed Gabrielle how to do summersaults in the water, and I think Uncle Cory even tried a handstand or two.

There was also beach play time. We had lots of trucks, shovels, and sand castles.

Matthew kept wanting to get his hands into the boys' sand castles.
Fortunately, for him - his mom started to build some castles strictly for the purpose of Matthew's destruction. What a happy boy!

Saturday we had the opportunity to have visitors. Aunt Nancy came, and Aunt Barb brought 4 of her grandkids along. (Lexi, Tori, Eli and Matea). The girls loved getting re-acquainted with the twins, Lexi and Tori and they had a wonderful time in the water together.

Nicholas has been getting more and more excited about the water this year. He is getting more comfortable in the water and actually has a desire to improve his swimming skills.
For the first time ever, he actually let Papa throw him in the water with no tubes or life jackets.

Ready, set, go

All day long on Saturday, Owen kept saying it was
"jumping off the boat day". He made sure to remind his dad of this fact
when they got the boat out that evening and he was so excited to jump off the boat.
The first time he jumped to his dad, the second time he just jumped right in.

The other kids all got the opportunity to jump off the boat too, but I had already put my camera away. However, a memory of have of that was - as the kids jumped off the boat: Matea kept saying "Me, Me" to her Grandma. She, of course, didn't want to actually jump off the boat as she was already cold and wrapped up in a towel - but she sure thought it looked like the kids were having fun.

In addition, to getting to jump off the boat - all the kids that wanted to were given the opportunity to go tubing. I didn't get pictures of them all, because I only had my camera out for a few minutes before joining everyone in the water.