August 31, 2010 Fire in the Woods

When we returned from Michigan's Adventure yesterday, we arrived at the campground to find several fire trucks, off road vehicles and a big red "canteen" bus just inside the entrance to the park. We later found out that there had been a grass fire just over the first rise of the dunes that burned approximately 1 acre of dune grass and a couple of trees. They were fortunate to get the fire out - but there was a lot of heat below ground that they needed to make sure all of the heat was gone before the winds picked up the next day. After dinner, we went for a walk to see the fire trucks from a far and I did not think to take my camera. Big Mistake! The fire was pretty much out, so Chief Bob and Chief Alan very graciously spent the next hour and a half answering every question that Sam could come up with. He got to try on Chief Bob's fire gear, climb on the fire trucks and everything. It was quite an experience and I have no pictures to remember it by.

The next day however, they were a few firefighters that returned to check for hot spots, etc and we got permission to go back and investigate where the fire had been.

Later in the afternoon, we had visitors. Missy, Eli and Matea came to visit again. They had been up with Jon and Aunt Barb on Sunday and decided to come back and enjoy some beach time. The kids had an awesome time playing in the waves and the warm Lake Michigan water.

Matea and Sam had a great time in the sand.

After a wonderful meal of french toast for supper prepared by Mom, aka Grandma aka Aunt Linda - Missy decided to treat the kids to ice cream when the little RuthAnn's ice-cream cart made it's appearance in the park.

August 29, 2010 Michigan's Adventure

All summer long the kids did chores and earned "credits" toward a trip to Michigan's Adventure. They talked about it all summer and kept having discussions about which rides they would like and which ones they might or might not be tall enough to ride. We planned our Michigan's Adventure day to occur during our camping trip in Muskegon so that Grandma and Grandpa could come and help watch kids while we were on rides with the older kids. Things didn't turn out quite as we had planned because the only day that worked out to go with the weather was a day that Paul had to work, so we ended up having to go without him. We had a great time anyway, and can't wait to take him with us next year. We even got Grandma and Grandpa to go on some rides with us.

Ready for our big day.

The first ride we headed for was the Big Dipper or should we say the Little Dipper. It was the perfect introduction to a small size roller coaster to see which kids liked to ride. The answer: ALL OF THEM - even Sam loved the ride and wanted to go again.

One of the nice things about taking the kids at this age, was that all of them were still small enough to go on the little rides with each other - and yet big enough to go on some of the bigger rides too.

I was very proud of Nicholas all day long. He patiently took Sam under his wing and went on all the little kids rides with him. He was very mature in not being all about the roller coasters but worked hard at making a fun day for everyone.

I couldn't resist this picture as the girls waited in line for Bee-Bop Boulevard. As they watched the people go in front of them and climbed the steps to get to where you get on the ride they walked hand in hand.

Bee-Bop Boulevard

Sam and Grandma even let someone else go ahead of them so they could get this Corvette.

It was now time for another roller coaster. Zach's Zoomer was a little bit bigger, a little bit faster and a little bit bumpier than the previous roller coaster - but once again they all loved it. This time we had Grandpa along for the ride and Sam actually was disappointed when the ride was done. He thought that every ride would go around 2 times like the first roller coaster did.

The kids loved the Frog Hopper and actually went on it a couple of more times throughout the day.

Gabrielle had been talking about the Mad Mouse all summer long. She kept praying that she would be tall enough to go on it. Thankfully, she was - or I would have had one very disappointed little girl. Allison was actually tall enough too - but opted to go on the helicopter ride with Sam instead.

In addition, the roller coasteres and kiddie rides - all of the kids also liked the twisty, turny, spinny rides and giggled and laughed their way through from beginning to end.

This ride did not prove to be one of Sam's favorites, actually it isn't one of mine either but I ended up going twice because the girls wanted to. The Sea Dragon does a number on one's stomach, that's for sure.

We had not spent most of the morning going on almost every ride. Sam was always tall enough to accompany us and we were having a great day. Little did we know however, that Sam wasn't tall enough for the bumper boats. We didn't find that out until we had waited in line and already had his life jacket on. This ended up being one of the few times throughout the entire day that we had tears, and to be honest, I didn't blame him - he was one heartbroken little boy and he watched his sisters be able to go on the ride that he had so patiently waited to enjoy.

What's a trip to the amusement park without a ride on the carousel.

By afternoon, we were getting quite hot and irritable. The waterpark was a welcome reprieve and we were thrilled to find out that they had a wonderful kids area - complete with giant bucket dump.

(Note: - the pictures are quite sparse here, because Grandpa's battery started to go dead on the camera).

After cooling off in the waterpark, we allowed each of the kids to pick one more ride to do before we headed back to the campground.

Nicholas' choice, that he had patiently waited for all day was the corkscrew. We were lukcy and Grandpa actually was able to catch us on the "flip side".
(we are in the 2nd row from the left of the picture - you can see my orangish colored shirt).

We finished the day with the log-ride and the ferris wheel but have no pictures of us coming down the big hill because the battery went dead. It was a great day, the kids did wonderfully, had a ton of fun and are already talking about next year.

August 28, 2010 Muskegon State Park Channel Campground Part One

Today was the first day of a 10 day long, end of the summer, before school starts camping adventure. It was also the first time this entire summer that we have camped near Lake Michigan. The kids have done lots of swimming this year, but this was the first time they got to play in the waves and we were blessed with some warm water temperatures and some fun waves.

Another of our favorite activities while visiting Channel Park is to climb the dunes behind the campground. They are just the right size for the kids to be able to climb up and run down several times without it being too tiring. They had have lots of fun.

Paul makes it to the top first.

August 21, 2010 Cran Hill Ranch continued

Once again, we had new experiences and adventures planned for today. Today was Rock Wall Day. The kids needed to be 5 years old to participate, due to the size of the safety harnesses that they needed to wear. The Rock wall was 40 feet tall and covered with various hand and foot holds. I wasn't quite sure what to expect from the kids once we got there - as I sat and looked at how high it actually was.

My cousin, Stacy's 2 boys went first. Their 5 year old, Josh, was amazing to watch. He is one little kid filled with brute strength. He made it about 3/4 of the way up by shear strength and determination. He truly amazed us all - had he been a little bit taller we are very confident he would have made it to the top. At the same time, 8 year old, Tyler was climbing next to him. He wasn't quite as strong but was able to make it all the way to the top with his extra height and consistent encouragement from his dad who was on the belay rope with Paul. Next, came Nicholas - we soon discovered that, in typical Nicholas form, he spent the entire time the other 2 boys were climbing planning his attack. He must have sat there and studied which foot hold and hand hold was the easiest to get to, and was going to make the most efficient track to the top. He got on the wall and took off like a jack rabbit. What he lacked in strength he made up for in flexibility and agility, because before we knew it he was 3/4 of the way up. He had a small moment where he had to stop and reassess his path, but he made it to the top and made us all proud.

Nicholas was about 1/2 way up the wall when Gabrielle started. I knew Gabrielle had the athleticism to do it, but wondered whether the height would get to her. I also knew that her own height was not on her side. She did so well. She never really got frustrated, she just kept going. There were a few times where she could reach a hand hold or foot hold, but couldn't quite pull herself up. Paul and cousin Steve, pulled a little harder on belay to give her that extra boost. She made it to the top too.

Gabrielle is about 1/2 way up here, and Nicholas is starting to repel back down.

Gabrielle at the top.

The last one to go was Allison. Now, first you must understand that Allison is more of a ballerina type girl, not really a tom boy. A few times she said she changed her mind - but I told her she needed to try, just try. She didn't make it far - in fact, she made it just out of our reach, but she tried and she did something she had never done before and for that we were so proud.

Happy girl - making it as far as she did.

Later that morning, we were able to pick up their finished tie-dyed shirts.

On the way back from picking up our shirts, they were in the process of closing down a bounce house that they had running for part of the morning. Because we were the only ones there at the time, they let our kids and my cousins kids do a quick obstacle course race against each other.

Allison and Sam

Nicholas races Gabrielle

The traditional Saturday night activity is a hay ride.
We had so many people this year - that we took up 2 wagons with just our extended family. Gabrielle and McKenna were walking buddies on our way to hayride.

Tie-Dye shirts galore.

Nicholas -8, Tyler - 7 , Gabrielle - 6 , Owen -4
Joshua - 5, Josh - 5, Eli - 5, Allison - 5
(yes they are all 5 they were all born within 2 months time
and the 2 Josh's actually share the exact same birthday)
Sam - 3, Matea - 2, McKenna -2

Cousins ready for a hayride.

After the hayride, it is also tradition that we spend some time on the store porch eating ice cream and candy followed by a lot of running around in the open baseball field below.

This was a common site over the course of the weekend.
Shoes, lots and lots of shoes - that were kicked off time and time again at the entrance to the playground. This playground was definitely created for barefoot fun.

Much to my chagrin the roof of the cabin was quite the play place over the weekend too. Needless to say, I got over it because there was no stopping it.