April 16-18, 2010
Yankee Springs Recreation Area

If you haven't figured it out by now - we love spring camping. We were actually headed to Ionia State Park with our friends, but they arrived first and found that there was no water to fill our storage tanks. The dump stations weren't turned on yet - and the bathrooms were still closed, etc. We may love to camp, but we have our limits and water is one of them. After pulling the phone number from the camping notebook I keep in the truck at all times, I made a quick call to Yankee Springs and confirmed that they indeed did have water available at the pump house. So after another phone call back to Kevin and Lyn - they turned their trailer around and headed to Yankee Springs instead. We hadn't yet gotten as far as US 131 so we didn't have to detour, just change our route. We were able to fill up with water and got a couple of great sites right on the channel.

Sam shows everyone how he learned how to ride a two wheeler this week.

We did several hikes this weekend. When we arrived we found out that if the kids completed 3 hiking trails in their entirety that they would earn a dragonfly medallion. This was enough motivation for them to complete 3 of the trails without much complaining.

One of the things that kept the kids occupied was a new game they made up with Paul. They would lay down in the middle of the trail and he would ride the bike trailer over top of them.
In this picture, Jillian is the one getting dirty~much to her mother's chagrine ;-)

The other game they made up was pulling the trail markers back and letting them fly to smack each other on the butt. Jillian lines up her shot at Allison.

In addition, to several great hikes, we got some good fishing in too.
I think most of the kids caught a fish.

Once again there were many light saber duels.
Nicholas is having so much fun with his "new cousins"
who enjoy so many of the same things as he does.

These two girls were perfectly content to just cast their
practice weights into the water over and over again.
As long as they are together, they are usually happy.

Sam wore his helmet quite a bit this weekend.
Seems like he just forgets it's on after a while.

Helmets are mandatory equipment for fishing, right?

Like Sleepy Hollow, there was tree climbing as well.

One of the benefits of camping with other people, is the bonus of a family picture which we rarely get - as I am usually the one behind the camera.

Group picture to remember another wonderful weekend together.
Sam HAD to be by Romeo~ his new best bud.
(Sam is the only one who doesn't have a cousin here that is his age, so I think he feels that Romeo is his special friend)

April 8-11, 2010
Spring Break Camping Trip
Sleepy Hollow State Park

A couple of months ago - we started thinking about doing something fun over spring break. I spoke for Friday as a vacation day and we just hoped for a good weekend - that maybe we could do some camping. We figured if we couldn't camp, we would find something else to do as a family. As the time got closer, we arranged to camp with our friends (my 2nd cousin and his family) that we had connected with last November. Their kids and our kids are the same ages and got along really well last fall. As we got closer to the date the weather forecast looked cold at the beginning of the weekend but was supposed to improve as the weekend went on. We've camped in worse - so we agreed to head out to Sleepy Hollow State Park just north of Lansing.

Sam found a section of the road that was basically falling apart. He and Paul decided to do a little excavating of the area. They had all of Sam's big rigs and diggers involved in the project.

Allison and Jillian are 6 days apart - and are quickly becoming the best of friends.

The rest of the kids get involved in the street excavation project that Sam and Paul started.

After hearing stories about his cousin Owen's new drum set - Sam decided that our toy box and a pair of bats made for an excellent drum set of his own. The activity was actually repeated several times throughout the weekend.

Allison enjoys drawing with her sidewalk chalk.

The two girls take a time out from cheerleading
for a heart to heart conversation behind the trailers.

1, 2, 3,...... 20 Ready or not, hear we come.
The area behind our trailers turned out to be an
excellent place for several games of hide and seek.

Sam is learning from his cousin Tyler that tree climbing is a lot of fun.

This particular tree proved to be a great tree for several of the kids to climb.

The afternoon turned out to be quite windy - but we had promised the kids we would play some frisbee golf. So, although, the wind proved to be very frustrating for 7 kids who can barely throw a frisbee at all - we gave it a good try. It is actually a very nice, professional frisbee golf course that should prove to be a lot of fun as the kids get older.

Exploring the Island Trail

In addition, to many games of hide and seek, this tree located directly behind our trailers was quite a source of entertainment throughout the weekend.

All 7 kids in one place at one time. Posing for a picture to remember our weekend together.
Tyler - 6, Micah - 8, Nicholas - almost 8
Jillian - 4, Sam - 3, Allison - 4, Gabrielle - 6

Note: Micah is 3 months older than Nicholas
Gabrielle is 3 months older than Tyler
Jillian is 6 days older than Allison
Can't get much better than that - as far as playmates.
But what about Sam you say? He is totally enamored with Romeo the dog, so I think he is good to go.

April 4, 2010
Easter Sunday

Ready to check out their Easter Baskets

We headed over to Cory and Catherine's for dinner. Grandma and Aunt Catherine had set-up an Easter Egg Hunt. But before they could begin, Grandma had a few guidelines to explain.

Sam finds one of his orange eggs

Owen and Sam check out the new tube for pulling behind Uncle Shawn's boat this summer

Our best effort at a group picture. Every time we try this it gets more and more interesting. I think this is one of the only shots I got that you can actually see all 8 faces at the same time.

April 3, 2010
A Busy Day

The day started off with our first try at the annual Ravenna Easter Egg Hunt at Conklin Park near our house. I don't really know why we've never done this before - maybe it was just weather related. The kids seemed to have a good time and we'll probably do it again another year.

Allison and Sam await the start for their age group.

Nicholas and Gabrielle followed Papa's advice and headed straight to the farthest point and started gathering eggs while many of the other kids started at the beginning.

Checking out their treasures

Then it was a trip into Grand Rapids for my nephew Owen's Birthday Party at Chuck E Cheese.
Allison loved the clock swing

Pedalling herself up into the air.

The kids table

What a picture - Owen really gets into blowing out his candles.

Opening the Butterfly Garden we bought him

Sam checks out Scoop

Nicholas tries the pedal helicopter too.

March 26-28, 2010
On the road again - at last.

With a brand new trailer purchased late in the 2009 camping season - the winter seemed oh so long. We were so excited to have a crisp but beautiful weekend that we could get the trailer back on the road and enjoy a wonderful weekend away.

Camping Season 2010 has begun!

First hike of the season

"Sledding" down the hill on our bottoms
(the hill was steep and the leaves were slippery)

First campfire of the year.

Some parts of the hiking trails don't seem to encounter a lot of sun
- so we found a few stray snow piles here and there.

A brief stop along the hiking trail

On our way back - what a view. A perfect early spring day!

On two wheels. Allison got her training wheels off on our last camping trip last November - but needed a little bit of re-orientation to figure it all out again this year.

March 22, 2010
Making of a Masterpiece

I have no idea what they were pretending to make here - but they made a huge mess of my cupboards. However, I think they pretended to cook for almost 30 minutes without any fighting or arguing. Sooooo worth the mess!

March 6, 2010

Destination Imagination Regional Competition
Weighty News

This year's theme for D.I. was designed around a new broadcast. As before, the team (shown below) is responsible for writing and acting out a skit, as well as designing all of their own costumes and props. This years skit not only was in the form of the news, but had to include a commercial break and include a structure that could fit inside a 3x3 box and was made entirely out of newspaper and tape.

Nicholas' team wrote a skit where 2 ice fisherman catch a VERY LARGE prehistoric fish. They call for the marine biologist, Nicholas - who has the fish transported to his zoo. The news team comes on site and interviews the fisherman, as well as Nicholas. Their commercial involved the food pyramid. The fish they built was huge - but unfortunately the only pictures I have of it are on video instead of a still shot.

They all did a great job and earned a certificate of completion as well as a medal of participation. (They don't win place awards until the 3rd grade and higher). The program for these younger kids is decided to encourage them in their efforts and not so much about "beating" the other teams.